Dark Illusions
by charrrr
Summary: Follow on to Innocent Illusions. Quinn Chamberlain and Eve Fox come from different backgrounds. In an ordinary world, the chances of them even meeting would be slim. Both new to the Savant Academy however, they do meet. Drawn to Eve by a vision he's had of her for months, Quinn is determined to prevent his vision from ever occurring... But can the future really be changed?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note:

Hello! So, just to clarify something. This is a kind-of sequel to Innocent Illusions, just like Stealing Phoenix is to Finding Sky.

The main characters are new characters, however Killian and Gracie and the others from I.I. will be a big part of the story too! It continues on directly from the last chapter of I.I.

Not a lot happens in this first chapter but I've set the scene and left you with a little mystery from both characters. I hope you like it, please follow/favourite and please leave reviews to let me know what people think! :)

* * *

 **Monday 7** **th** **September 2020**

Quinn Chamberlain stepped out of the car his father had hired to take him from London to Yorkshire and looked up at the school that would his new home away from home.

The Savant Academy was not what he had expected. He'd imagined steel walls, a vibe similar to a prison's, and students looking miserable to be back considering most of them had been sent here by the net against their personal wishes. That was certainly why he was there, after all. Instead though, the students looked happy as they greeted each other on the first day of the new school year, and the school's façade looked quite welcoming. It was a largish building, made of dark brick with trails of ivy running up it, and the window panes were painted white. From what Quinn understand after having read the information leaflets the net had provided him with, the building ahead of him was the girls dormitories. Behind it there would be two other buildings: the boys dormitories and the main school building. Quinn didn't want to be here but at least it wasn't as bad as he had been expecting, he thought to himself.

He watched as his chauffeur got back into the car and drove away without another word after leaving Quinn's suitcases on the ground beside him. He hadn't been expecting a goodbye, but seeing how abrupt the departure was made him envious of the students here whose parents had managed to make the trip with them.

Taking hold of his luggage, his eyes lingered on the sight of a suitcase floating in mid-air across the green of the front courtyard. He knew that all savants had the ability of telekinesis, and others had powers that enabled them to control objects in other ways, but it still came as a shock to him to see it out in the open like that. The person doing it was a girl who looked around his own age, with olive skin and long dark hair. He watched as she looked over her shoulder and blew a kiss to two guys: one her age with strawberry blonde hair, and one older whom Quinn was guessing was the girl's father going by the resemblance they shared.

The girl, like many others around her, seemed delighted to be here and Quinn just didn't understand that. Was it just because he was new and they had been here before and had friends here? Probably. Still didn't make him feel any better.

Deciding to actually start moving instead of standing there looking like a lost sheep, Quinn followed a group of boys a few years younger than him, allowing them to unknowingly lead him to the boys dorms.

The front door led into a lounge area, with many sofas, chairs, and beanbags. There were five flat screen TV's, a couple computers, and a door that he presumed led to the kitchen. There were no parents in here and he remembered the leaflet had said the kids would have to say their goodbyes to their families on the front courtyard. Some students were lingering around down here still, conversing and joking around.

A couple guys were throwing a rugby ball back and forth. When the ball came flying towards him, Quinn acted on instinct and caught it seconds before it smacked him in the face.

"Dude!" One of the guys called out. His bright red hair was styled in dreadlocks. "Nice catch!"

Quinn grinned. It was the first time he'd smiled all day and it was really only because he was totally into sports. He threw the ball back before grabbing his cases again and heading up the stairs. He had been told his room number was 18 and he found it on the second floor.

Going inside without bothering to knock, he found that his roommate was already inside. Roommate… God, Quinn had never shared a room with anyone before. He was used to having a whole two floors of his house to himself. This was certainly going to take some getting used to.

His roommate was pinning a poster of a topless woman on the wall, giving Quinn a moment to get a good look at him. Appearance-wise, the guy was the complete opposite to him. Whilst Quinn dressed very well and stylish, his roommate was wearing a grey tracksuit with some named brand trainers. Quinn never wore trainers unless it was for sports. Never. He figured that he and the guy probably came from totally different backgrounds, him being wealthy and previously attending an all-boys grammar school, whilst his roommate probably was quite common and came from public school. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but Quinn didn't get much interaction with people like that.

 _Guess I will now,_ he thought to himself.

His roommate stepped off the bed he had claimed, poster now firmly stuck to the wall, and looked over at Quinn. His ash blonde hair hung into his face and his green eyes looked Quinn up and down, taking in his tailored coat, suede brogues, and designer suitcases.

"Rich boy, huh?" He made eye contact, the amused smirk on his face meeting his eyes. Due to his accent, Quinn could identify that the guy was from Liverpool.

Having been raised to always be polite and a gentleman, Quinn stuck his hand out. "Name's Quinn Chamberlain."

"God, even your name is posh," the guy laughed. He ignored Quinn's outstretched hand, leaving him feeling awkward as he dropped it. What kind of person didn't know how to shake someone's hand? "I'm Miles Kennedy, but everyone calls me Flash. Must be your first year here, right? 'Cause I've been here two years now and I've never seen you before. Pretty sure I'd remember it if I did." Quinn nodded to indicate it was in fact his first year here. "So, why'd the net send you here? I got sent here for using my power to shoplift," he shrugged as if it was no BFD.

Quinn's eyes widened. _Shoplifting?_ Couldn't say he'd ever met anyone who did that before, nor had he ever wanted to. Where he came from, all his friends' families were wealthy so there was no need for stealing things. He tried not to judge Flash because of it, but it was kind of hard not to imagine him as being the kind of rough person Quinn would usually avoid.

Answering Flash's question, he said, "I was sent here as a sort of introduction to the savant world. I only found out I was a savant in July."

"Wait, what? How is that even possible?" Flash laughed in disbelief.

This time it was Quinn who shrugged nonchalantly. "I was adopted. My power only started to manifest in February, I had no idea what was happening to me. The net has someone that can track people like me, and when they found me in July they decided to send me here."

"Fucking hell, as if! I don't think I've ever met someone who thought they were ordinary before. Well then. Welcome to the savant world, Rich. It's mysterious and damn right dangerous, but I can guarantee that you'll love it."

As the two boys began to unpack their belongings, Flash told Quinn some things about the school that hadn't been in the information leaflets, and some things that had. He told him about the curfew, about Power Construction classes which were everybody's favourite. He talked about how now they were in their first year of sixth form they'd be able to sign up for classes they'd never done before, and that the school usually didn't do two years of sixth form but over the summer they had announced that from now on they would do. He also told him that nobody wanted to have a dorm room on the second floor because it was where the teachers put the students they wanted to check up on the most so there was less of a chance of getting away with anything you shouldn't be doing, but there were positives: the rooms on the second floor were bigger despite only having two to a room instead of up to four people, and each room had it's own small balcony.

As they spoke, Quinn had to admit that his first impression of Flash was already starting to change. Turned out he wasn't as unpleasant to be around as he would have thought, and they both massively loved sports so at least they had something in common.

Taking a break from unpacking about half an hour later, Quinn opened the glass double doors that led onto the balcony. It was only small like Flash had said, probably only enough room for two chairs and that was about it, and there wasn't much a view seeing as their side of the building faced the back of the girls' building, but at least it gave him somewhere to go when sharing a bedroom with someone got too much for him.

The space between the two dorm building was about as big as a small house – it wasn't far enough to see completely into the windows or be able to shout across to each other, but it was close enough that when a girl walked out onto the balcony of the second-floor room directly across from his, he managed to get a good view of her.

She looked small height-wise, but still like she'd be in the upper half of the school. Maybe even the same year as Quinn. She was wearing skinny jeans and a light pink t-shirt, but her outfit wasn't what caught his attention. It was her hair. Down to her waist, it's natural colour was brown but from the jawline down she had dyed it dark purple.

Quinn wasn't the kind of guy to focus on a girl's hair, he just focused on it because it made him realise that he knew the girl. Not personally, although it felt that way to him.

The first vision he had when his power manifested in February was of this girl. The other visions had repeated themselves for about a week, and then he never saw them again. But the vision of this girl across from him had stuck with him since the first time he saw it. He had the same vision of her at least once a week and it had always bugged him as he wondered just who the hell she was.

Now that he'd finally found her, it didn't make him feel relieved one bit. No, it instead gave him a sick feeling in his stomach. Somehow, he knew that this wasn't good news. At all.

* * *

Eve Fox had turned up at the academy almost one hour ago, excited to be there. That excitement had quickly dissolved however.

She had been looking forward to being away from home, away from all the memories in the house, both good and bad. It had been her twin sister's idea to get their mother, who worked for the savant net, to ask her superiors if the girls could go to the school. It hadn't taken much persuading for them to say yes because of how respected their mum was, and both girls had been thrilled when they were given permission.

When they had been sent their room details, both had been glad that they weren't staying in the same room. Eve and Raven may have been twins, but that didn't stop them from despising each other and wanting a fresh start without the other one right next to them. But, just their luck, when they'd arrived at the academy they'd been informed that arrangements had been changed and they were now to share a room, just the two of them, on the second floor.

Eve was dealing quite well with it, in her opinion. The two had shared a bedroom since they were born. Yeah, she'd wanted her space from her sister for once, but it's not like it was anything new. Raven on the other hand had had a hissy fit and shouted at the teacher who had told them the news. Now she was unpacking her things, mumbling to herself angrily and practically throwing her clothes into her wardrobe.

Walking out onto their little balcony, Eve took a deep breath. It was good to be away from Raven, even if there was only a door between them. As she thought about what to do with the balcony – she was pretty set on creating a little flowerbed to brighten it up – she noticed that across the centre courtyard, there was a boy stood on a balcony. He was tall and had dark hair styled into the perfect quiff.

She didn't quite like the idea of being watched like this, but Eve wasn't one for confrontations and making presumptions about people. Maybe he was just checking out the school, maybe it was his first day too. He probably wasn't watching her for any malicious or creepy reason. She hoped he wasn't anyway.

Looking around at her environment she couldn't deny that despite the living arrangements, she was still somewhat excited to be here. She was interested in seeing if her powers could in fact be developed and was curious as to what it would be like to be around other savants her own age. Her family were the only savants she had ever known, and she liked the thought of being able to interact with others.

Deciding that she better finish unpacking before she even thought of doing anything else, she took one last curious glance at the boy across from her before heading back into the room. She left the sliding glass doors open to let in some fresh air.

Rooting around in her suitcase to pull out her bedsheets, she was aware of Raven glaring at her back from where she was now sat on the edge of her desk.

Eve straightened up and turned to face her twin. They were identical in looks aside from the hair. Raven had never dyed her hair and it used to be just as long as Eve's until she had stunned the whole family by coming home one day last month with it cut in a pixie style. She pulled it off – Raven could pull off anything – but it had still made Eve sad. Sure, they weren't close anymore, but they'd always been totally identical and it was just odd having something that set them apart appearance-wise. "I didn't want this either, you know," she said in a quiet voice. "We're just going to have to deal with it, Rave. I'll stay out of your way as much as I can, I swear."

"That's gonna be hard to do when we share a room," Raven snapped, her blue eyes narrowed in frustration. "It's not fair! I only asked mum if I could come here, I didn't want you to be here. The whole point of coming here was to get away from you."

Eve tried not to show how much that comment hurt her and refrained herself from snapping back at her. "Mum was the one who signed me up too, I would have been fine with staying at home but you know she doesn't want me there. And we can stay away from each other, it'll only be at night and in the morning we'll have to face each other. Believe me, I wanted a room away from you too."

"Well I'm going to complain about this. I'm going to fill in one of those forms to request a room transfer for either one of us," Raven informed her with a clenched jaw.

"I don't get it. Why are you making such a big deal out of this? At least I know your boundaries and you don't have to deal with a new roommate getting in your way all the time," Eve pointed out. What she didn't add was that she was slightly soothed to know she wouldn't be forced to talk to new people. Being an introvert, that was her idea of hell.

"Because it's not right." Raven answered in a quieter, less angry voice. Pain was evident in her voice and Eve knew exactly what, or rather whom, her sister was thinking about. "It's too painful. I can't even stand the sight of you anymore."

Her words sounded cruel but Eve knew that Raven for once didn't mean them that way. She sometimes felt the same way about Raven. "I know," she whispered. At a normal tone again she added, "fill out the form then. Let's just hope there's somebody willing to switch with one of us."

Not being able to meet Raven's eyes again, Eve grabbed her toiletries bag and headed into their en-suite bathroom, closing the door behind herself. Turning on the shower and stripping out of her clothes, she stepped under the spray of water and reveled in having a moment of peace.

She hated that things between her and Raven had gotten like this. It felt like ages ago, but once upon a time they had been inseparable. They'd told each other everything and used to have such similar personalities with loads in common. Now though, they were completely unalike.

Eve wanted to hope that being away at the academy and away from the rest of the family may make them close again.

Truth was though, she was almost positive that it was going to drive them even further apart. She didn't like how that sounded like it would be a good thing to her.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note:

Eh, I'm not that happy with this chapter. It didn't turn out how I wanted it to. Sorry if it sucks.

If you're reading please leave a review, even if it's to tell me you don't like the chapter! It just feels like there's barely anyone reading this.

* * *

 **Tuesday 8** **th** **September 2020**

Eve entered her last class of the day with a sense of relief that lessons would finally be over in just one hour. It wasn't that the day had been terrible for her, she'd actually quite liked it. Sixth formers could pick four subjects to take, along with their Power Construction lessons and she had chosen: English literature, criminology, photography, and biology. They were all subjects that she was really interested in and she'd had taster sessions for each today that she had enjoyed. Her actual timetable would start tomorrow and she was happy to know that she had quite a few free periods during the week.

The only reason she was glad the day was almost over was because Eve could be a pretty socially anxious person. She'd had one friend at her old school and had struggled to interact with other people, becoming nervous in big groups and never speaking out in class. She was incredibly shy with people she didn't know and hadn't spoken to anybody all day, which wasn't something she was sad about. Actually, she'd relaxed instantly whenever the person next to her didn't bother to start a conversation with her.

Criminology was her last session for the day and she took a seat in the corner right at the back of the classroom. It was her desired seat in every class: it meant that she couldn't get paranoid from people sitting behind her, and lessened the chances of the teacher seeing her and calling on her for answers.

She busied herself with getting her notebook and pen out of her over-the-shoulder purple bag as her classmates filed into the room, praying that there would be enough seats that nobody would sit next to her. She hadn't had such luck all day, but maybe she would now?

Or not, she thought to herself bitterly.

As the chair beside her scraped back, she looked up to see who was sitting down next to her. It was a guy about 5"9 with dark tousled hair who was dressed impeccably well. He had been in her English lit and biology classes in the morning, but had disappeared to another class when she had photography. He had been in her PC lesson but the class had been split into two separate groups of five to make their time with the teachers more personal, so she had no idea what his power was.

His name was Quinn Chamberlain and he was a walking cliché. A typical attractive posh boy who had become so popular already despite it being only the first day. Eve had seen many boys attempting to be his friend and many girls attempting to flirt with him. From what she had seen, Quinn had been loving the attention and had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand.

He sat down next to her, flashing her a goofy smile. He had pale green eyes, a defined jaw with high cheekbones, and a face full of dark freckles. He was beautiful, but didn't he know it. "Hey, you're Eve right?" He asked. Even his accent was posh. "I'm Quinn."

She was staring. Oh God, she couldn't stop staring. He probably thought she was a total freak right now. The thing was, guys like him usually paid no attention to Eve. Raven was the outspoken one, the one who was always popular. Eve had briefly seen her sister at lunch (the twins didn't have any lessons together; Raven had purposely waited until Eve chose her subjects before deciding on her own) and she already had a large group of friends to hang out with. She'd pretended that she hadn't seen Eve sat at a table on her own.

"I hope you weren't saving the seat for anyone," Quinn continued, unaware of Eve's inner monologue. "Wow, you and Raven really are identical, aren't you? That's hot." A memory flashed into her mind of Quinn being one of Raven's new friends in the cafeteria. The popular gang formed already, she supposed.

She nodded, not aware of what she was even answering. She could feel her hands shaking under the table as she looked away from Quinn. _Please just stop talking to me,_ she thought silently. No doubt he thought she was being super rude right now, which wasn't her intention. Nope. She was just awkward.

"You don't talk much, do you?" He sounded amused, as people often were when they realised how shy she was.

God, why was he even talking to her? They didn't have to be friends with each other just because they shared a few classes. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone? Stupid rich boy with his stupid ideas of everybody falling in love with him instantly. He was the type of person she would ordinarily avoid, and vice versa. So why was he making an effort when they both knew they probably had nothing in common and wouldn't make very good friends even if they tried?

"Are you going to the party tonight?" He suddenly asked her. "You should. We could hang out together, if you wanted."

Again with the staring. If she'd had the nerve to, she would have replied sarcastically with something along the lines of: _'me? At a party? Yeah, hell will freeze over before you ever see that day.'_ But that was the thing with being shy. She never could bring herself to say things to people as soon as she thought them. She had to over-analyse everything, to make sure there was nothing she said that they could judge her on.

She was saved from having to fumble with a reply by the teacher walking into the room. The tension almost immediately left her body at the sight of her saviour, her mind now focused entirely on the teacher as she began the lesson.

A debate about serial killers quickly ensued, but for obvious reasons Eve didn't join in and instead wrote down notes. Beside her, Quinn was very open with his opinions about the subject matter and Eve found herself agreeing with him more than anyone else. Not that she said anything, of course.

Still though, during the entire duration of the lesson she was aware of Quinn constantly glancing over at her.

When the lesson finally ended, she rushed out of the room as fast as she could because heaven forbid he tried to talk to her again. Conversations with strangers were just exhausting for her.

* * *

Eve went back into her bedroom, trying to make as little noise as possible so she didn't annoy Raven. She'd spent the time after school in the library, relishing the quiet time alone. She'd left to go to the cafeteria for tea, but had gone straight back to the library afterwards. She was only coming back to the bedroom because it was 7pm which meant the library was closing.

She'd meant what she'd said when she told Raven they would stay away from each other. She couldn't face spending time with her sister. The guilt over their past would eat her alive.

Raven was in front of the mirror in their bathroom, the door wide open so Eve could see her clearly. She was wearing a short red dress with teetering high heels, and was applying perfect make-up. Eve never wore make-up but that was down to the fact that she didn't know how to apply it properly rather than her being vain enough to think she didn't need it.

"Where are you going?" She asked as she dumped her bag on the bed and sat down to take her boots off. "You look nice."

Raven paused halfway through putting her mascara on before looking back at herself in the mirror. "Thanks," she said in a flat tone. "I'm going to a party at the boys' dorms."

Eve waited for Raven to invite her to go with her but of course that didn't happen. Before this summer, Raven would always invite her to the local parties even though she knew Eve's answer would always be no. It was still a little weird to not have that between them anymore.

Noticing a plain envelope on her bedside table she frowned in confusion as she picked it up. "What's this?"

Raven shrugged. "How should I know? It was outside our door with your name on it when I got back. You must have an admirer or something."

Eve scoffed aloud at the thought of that. Guys weren't typically fond of the shy girl that didn't speak so that was highly unlikely. She opened the envelope and slid out whatever was inside.

There were photos of her arriving at the school, pulling her suitcase out of the car and saying goodbye to her mum. Photos of her and Raven entering the dorms. And then there was a note, printed from a computer instead of being handwritten.

"Raven," she said in a shaky voice, "I think you need to see this."

"Can't," Raven replied, coming out of the bathroom. She picked up her mobile from her desk and headed towards the door. "I said I'd meet Allie and her friends downstairs and I'm already late."

"But-"

Raven slammed the door shut behind her. Eve had no idea who Allie was but apparently meeting her was more important than making sure Eve was okay.

She shouldn't have been surprised really. Raven had already made it clear she didn't want a relationship with Eve anymore, and she would probably dislike her sister even more if Eve showed her the photos and the note. Raven wanted to get past all this, she wouldn't want to be involved or know that it was happening again.

Eve couldn't tell her.

She looked back down at the note and read it again, fear rushing through her body:

 _I will always find you, no matter how far you run from me._

* * *

That night there was a party in the boys' dorms. Quinn had been surprised to hear that the teachers were allowing this, but apparently they weren't that strict here. There were security guards patrolling the grounds that would report to the teachers if anything got out of hand, and the thing had to end by eleven, but other than that they were free to do what they wanted. Usually they wouldn't allow the 8pm curfew to be broken on a school night but were making an exception seeing as it was the first day.

"Come on," Flash said beside him, his tone flirty as he draped an arm over Raven's shoulders. "You know you wanna dance with me and get up close and personal."

With a smile on her face, Raven rolled her eyes and casually removed his arm from her shoulders. "If I didn't know there wasn't any alcohol here, I would have sworn you were drunk right now. Hard to believe you're this brave sober, Flash."

"Brave? Nah, I just go after what I want. Ain't afraid of that," Flash teased her.

Quinn laughed out loud and gave Flash's shoulder a little shove. Flash had been flirting with pretty much every girl he spoke to all day. They hadn't been very receptive to it, but that hadn't stopped him. Quinn kind of admired his new friend's confidence and persistence to be honest. "She doesn't want you," he said with a grin. "Can't say I blame her."

As Flash and Raven launched into a friendly fight about the best way to charm a girl, Quinn looked over at Raven and couldn't help but think of her sister. It was an obvious thing to do seeing as they were identical, but more than anything Quinn was just dying for the right way to bring up Eve as a conversation topic.

It's not that he was obsessed with her or anything (although he couldn't deny that she was beautiful), but he wanted to get close to her. He'd chosen not to tell her about the visions so as not to frighten her, but that's wasn't to say he was just going to stand back and do nothing. He planned on becoming friends with her so that he could try and figure out how to prevent his vision from happening.

He thought it'd be easy. It was always easy for him to make friends and get people to like him.

Eve however… Well, he wasn't even sure how that had gone. He didn't know how she felt about him, she hadn't spoken a word to him. She'd just stared at him as if he was some sort of alien. He didn't think he'd said anything wrong so why hadn't she liked him? Oh well. It just meant that he would have to work harder. A little chase never hurt anyone.

He was about to open his mouth to ask Raven if her sister was at the party when a scream echoed in the lounge area. The music cut off abruptly to be replaced with people asking what was wrong.

"She only went out for a cig," Quinn heard a girl cry out. By the patio doors leading to the back of the dorms was a young girl, maybe only in year eight or something, with tears streaming down her face.

Killian Ashe, a guy from Quinn's sports class – the same guy with strawberry blonde hair he had seen on move in day – rushed over to the girl, putting a gentle hand on her back. Quinn inched forwards to hear the conversation better.

Killian was trying to calm the hysterical girl, but it was still hard to understand what she was saying through her sobbing. "Went for… a cig… She was fine… I don't understand… Help her…"

"Shh, it's alright," Killian said soothingly in his Irish accent. He'd taken control of the situation already and Quinn had no idea how he was being so patient with the blubbering girl. He himself could never handle it when a girl cried in front of him, he never had any idea what to do. "Slow down. Your friend went outside for a moment, okay. Then what?"

Instead of answering, the girl turned around and ran outside again. As would be expected from a group of curious teenagers, a large number of them followed after her. Quinn was at the front of the group next to Killian.

The girl stopped by a tree and started crying even louder. With gasps and screams coming from behind him Quinn slowly looked up… And saw the girl's friend hanging lifelessly from the tree, the wind making the rope holding her up slowly sway her from side-to-side.

"Oh my god," he and Killian said in unison.

* * *

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Quinn is educated about soulfinders and Eve meets her new roommate.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note:

Big big thank you to my reviewers and followers, I'm glad you're enjoying my writing! :D

So the last scene in this chapter was originally going to be in chapter four but it fit in more with this one so I managed to cut some stuff out and edit it so that it could be in chapter three without it being too long. I think I made it all flow together well, hopefully it comes across that way for you too!

* * *

 **Friday 11** **th** **September 2020**

It amazed Quinn how quickly teenagers could move on from one thing to another. Just days after that young girl killed herself people had all but forgotten about her. New gossip had come along in the form of a pregnant year ten girl with rumours saying the baby daddy was her best friend's boyfriend.

Sat in the cafeteria over breakfast Quinn took another bite of his bacon and egg sandwich and listened as some girls on the table discussed the rumours.

"It's totally believable," one was saying. "She tries it on with practically everyone. And he's no better, I think he's cheated on every girl he's dated."

"At least no soulfinders were involved," the second girl said. "That would have made things _so_ much more complicated."

That piqued Quinn's interest. He had heard the word _soulfinder_ in passing a few times this week and it felt like that was something important, like a part of him was yearning for him to know what it meant. He turned to his left where Flash was sat eating his third bowl of cereal and asked him the question that was burning in his mind.

Flash shot him a bewildered look like Quinn was some kind of idiot. "You mean the net didn't tell you what soulfinders were?"

"No," Quinn shook his head. "Like I told you before, they only told me the basics. Said I'd learn everything else here. So? What's a soulfinder?"

"Well it's like this," Flash started the explanation, a glimmer in his eyes presumably over knowing something Quinn didn't. "The belief is that every savant has a soulmate, their soulfinder. They're our perfect half basically, they make us stronger and make it easier to control our powers."

Quinn raised his eyebrows. The thought of having a soulmate had always been absurd to him. He had never believed in fate and all that bullshit, unable to believe that there was someone destined to be his. Clearly Flash believed this though.

Reading Quinn's facial expression, Flash let out a burst of laughter. "I'm not joking with you, it's true!"

"Alright. And if it is true, how do you even know if someone is your soulfinder? Love at first sight?" His tone was sarcastic, teasing.

Flash rolled his eyes. "No. Your soulfinder should have a birthday around the same time as yours, because you were conceived around the same time. Of course it might not be like that, you know with babies being born premature or whatever. But you know for definite when you speak to them telepathically because they feel different in your mind than other people do. Some people describe it as fireworks, like a sudden realisation that your life is complete. They say it's like you share a soul with the other person, so you're always only half of yourself until you meet them. It's cheesy, but it's real. I swear." Flash looked over a few tables away and said, "take those two for example."

Quinn followed Flash's line of sight. Killian Ashe sat at the table with his friends, a girl perched on his lap. It was the same girl Quinn had seen blowing a kiss towards Killian on move-in day. The girl tilted her head back, laughing at some joke, and Killian was watching her with a look of what could only be described as pure love in his eyes. Sure, they looked happy together… But _soulmates_? Really?

"Gracie Benedict," Flash informed Quinn of the girl's name. "She's from one the most well-known savant families in the world. She's also Killian's soulfinder. They haven't even been together for a year yet, but they've already been through loads together. D'ya know what went down with The Illusionists last year?" When Quinn shook his head, Flash continued. "Well I'll tell you another time then. But yeah. They're soulfinders. And when you find yours, you'll be as loved up as those two are."

Quinn didn't say anything but that didn't stop him from thinking this through. His father had always told him to think things through logically and that's what he was doing. He knew that there must be some truth in soulfinders if so many savants believed in them and claimed to have met theirs, but he still found it difficult to imagine that there was a perfect someone out there for him that shared his soul. And if it could be anybody in the world, surely it was highly unlikely that you would ever actually meet your soulfinder? Unless they thought that fate would always bring them together eventually? Doubtful. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't ever believe this soulfinder thing unless he experienced it himself, which would probably never happen.

Flash suddenly jumped up from his seat and headed over to a group of girls from their criminology class, so Quinn went back to eating his breakfast and listening to the gossip at the table. He was glad to have people surrounding him as he hated to be alone, even if he wasn't joining in with the conversation.

Just as he was about to head over to his English lit class early, he saw Eve making her way through the cafeteria. Clearly she'd had the same plan that he did. He jumped to his feet and grabbed his bag, leaving his plate on the table for someone else to clean up. He caught up to her just as she was leaving.

Eve came to a standstill, looking up at him with a bewildered expression on her face. She was wearing a loose floral dress to her knees, a short-sleeved cardigan with tassels, and white ankle boots. Her blue eyes were wide, staring up at him.

"Morning," he said in a cheery tone with a grin on his face. He told himself to just be nice to her. She didn't seem like the kind of girl that would appreciate the flirty and arrogant side of him. "Are you heading over to English? Me too. Let's walk together."

Eve slowly nodded her head and spun around again, quickly. She almost walked into a small year seven girl but Quinn quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way just in time. Her skin was warm and smooth, but he let go straight away. It already seemed like she didn't like him, he didn't want to rile her up even further.

They walked to the classroom in an awkward silence, Quinn waiting for the right moment to broach the subject he wanted to talk to her about. He'd been thinking of ways to be able to spend time with her so he could hopefully get to know her and figure out his vision, and the idea had come into his mind yesterday. It was so obvious and happened in tons of chick flick films or books, but he was sure that it would work.

They stopped outside the classroom, Eve leaning her back against the wall. Her eyes met his before flitting away as if she were nervous. It came to Quinn then that maybe he hadn't done anything wrong and she was just shy. He hadn't thought of it before because he'd kind of been expecting her to be as confident as her twin. _Duh, Quinn. Idiot,_ he chastised himself. Identical twins didn't automatically have the same personality.

Realising this made him feel a little protective of her. She was innocent and gentle, definitely didn't deserve what happened to her in his vision. He really had to prevent it from happening, no matter what he had to do.

"So this might sound a little forward," he said softly. He felt like he was approaching an anxious baby deer or something. "You're in my biology class, right? See, I signed up for classes a little late and I was forced into taking biology because there were no places left in other subjects. I'm not very good at biology but I really want to get a good grade." He wasn't lying. He hated science but didn't want to fail; his father would never forgive him. "So I was wondering if you could help me out a little? Not tutor me exactly, but maybe sit with me in class and show me what I need to make notes on? And maybe we could meet up in the library when we have homework so you can help me get through it? Please, if it's not too much trouble."

Eve looked up at him, her cheeks blushing a deep rosy colour. It was kind of cute actually, Quinn thought to himself in amusement. "Um… Well…" She stammered, blinking rapidly. "I guess if you need the help… Sure?" She framed her reply like a question, but Quinn didn't give her a chance to back out and change her mind.

"Great," he grinned at her. "Thanks so much, I appreciate it."

Eve gave him a small smile but looked away as more of their classmates started arriving. They didn't speak for the next ten minutes and when the teacher finally arrived, they went to their seats on opposite sides of the room without a word to each other. But when Quinn sat at his desk and turned around, he saw that Eve was looking right back at him from her seat at the back of the room.

He smiled at her.

Her blush returned but she returned a shy smile before looking down at her notebook, her smile giving Quinn hope that he could save her from the future.

* * *

The day had been surprising to say the least. All week Eve had managed to get away with barely speaking to anyone and although she would have liked to have friends, it was just easier for her stress levels to not have to make forced conversations with people.

Quinn Chamberlain had interestingly changed that today though. Eve was a sucker for helping people when they asked her politely, so she hadn't really had a choice when Quinn asked her to help with biology. Besides, if she'd said no she would have sounded rude and didn't want to have to deal with explaining to him that the thought of spending one-on-one time with anyone, never mind an attractive guy, terrified her.

Thankfully they hadn't been given any homework in today's lesson so she didn't have to meet up with him at the end of the day. All through English, she'd been worried about biology next lesson and having to sit next to him, but it hadn't been as bad as she had been building it up to be. Quinn didn't speak to her much but seemed grateful that she was highlighting things in her textbook so he knew what he needed to make notes of himself.

She had no afternoon classes on Friday so she'd spent the whole afternoon in a quiet corner of the library, losing herself in a fantasy paperback. She almost missed tea but managed to grab a bowl of tomato soup before the cafeteria closed for the night.

She reluctantly headed to her bedroom afterwards. Her and Raven hadn't spoken at all the last few days and the room was always tense when both of them were there.

When she entered the room, she was expecting to see Raven on her laptop, chatting away to people on a social network site like she usually was. Instead however, she found Raven's side of the room completely bare. Her bright bedsheets were gone, photos taken off the wall, and no clothes were strewn all over the floor.

A tall blonde girl was sorting through a suitcase and two boxes, humming to herself as she did so. Eve closed the door behind her and forced herself to speak. "Um. Who are you?"

The girl straightened up, giving Eve a friendly smile. She had a delicate appearance and when she spoke it was in a quiet tone. "I'm Leigh Nolan, your new roommate." She twisted her fingers in front of her anxiously, and Eve got the feeling that Leigh was maybe just as shy as she was.

Her answer shocked Eve. Yeah, she had known the day would come when either her or Raven switched rooms with someone but she'd thought it would take longer than this. Raven hadn't even told her about this. Surely she deserved that much at least?

"I ended up in a room with my ex girlfriend," Leigh explained, chuckling a little. "My soulfinder, Sam, wasn't very happy about that. She trusts me, but you know, it's not something that she's happy about. So I put in a request to move. Why did your old roommate move?"

"She was my twin sister." Somehow, Eve found herself easily talking to Leigh and feeling relaxed around her already. Better than having a roommate she was intimidated by, anyway. "We wanted our own space for once."

"Makes sense. Your sister's Raven, right? I had no idea I was swapping with her. She's joining me and my friends downstairs for a movie later. You should join us," Leigh offered politely.

A movie was harmless. It meant that she wouldn't be forced to talk to anyone yet she would still be part of a group, still might make friends. So she wanted to say yes but… Raven would be there. Her sister wanted space, which meant she wouldn't be fond of Eve worming her way into her friends group.

"That's okay," she replied, knowing she sounded a little disappointed. "I think I'll just stay up here."

Leigh frowned a little. "Look, I know that it's none of my business but I've seen you around school on your own. I used to be like that too, until I met Sam and made friends with her friends. It's no good always isolating yourself, Eve. It's just a movie, I promise it won't be horrible."

Eve deliberated for a moment before finally sighing. Leigh was right. She couldn't isolate herself forever; she had to make an effort eventually. It was just a movie. "Fine," she said before her anxiety got the best of her and made her say no. "Do you, um, want any help unpacking?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Leigh smiled at her.

* * *

Quinn and Killian had been paired up in sports and had had a laugh together, so Killian had invited Quinn over to the girls dorms to watch a movie with some people. Raven and Gracie were there, and he was introduced to an Indian girl in a wheelchair called Sam, a blonde called Allie, and a Spanish guy called Fernando. Quinn had brought Flash too, doing his buddy a favour and giving him a chance to spend more time with Raven whom he was always relentlessly flirting with.

As Fernando was fiddling around to get the DVD player to work – there was something wrong with the sound apparently – Quinn heard Sam greet someone. He looked up, seeing Leigh from his PC lesson walking into the lounge with Eve of all people.

When Leigh introduced Eve to everybody, it was Raven that said more than a hello. "What do you think you're doing?" She said to her sister, an angry sneer on her face. "These are _my_ friends, Eve. Why do you always have to copy me? Go back upstairs."

Eve's face made it seem like she was seriously considering that, and that annoyed Quinn. Why didn't she just stick up for herself, not let herself be bullied by her own relative? Fair enough she was shy, but she shouldn't have to miss out on an evening with her classmates just because her sister didn't want to share something.

"Raven, stop," he said in a disbelieving voice. How could she treat her own sister like rubbish? He'd thought quite highly of Raven all week, considered her as a real friend even, but this was a new side to her that he didn't like. "What's wrong with you?"

Raven rolled her eyes and let her body relax on the beanbag she was sat on. "It's a family thing, Quinn. You don't have siblings so you don't understand," she said not unkindly. She shrugged her shoulders. "We fight all the time, it's normal."

Quinn didn't think it was normal to act like you truly hated your twin but he let that blow over. She had a point, after all. He may be misreading the situation entirely; he was an only child, so he'd never experienced it before. He slid closer to Flash on the sofa, so that he was in the middle. "You can sit there if you want," he said, directing his words to Eve this time. It would mean she was away from her sister and maybe that's what both girls needed.

Eve smiled at him gratefully before silently squeezing into the space he'd left for her. It was only a two-seater sofa so with all three of them sat on it they were pressed up against each other with no space to themselves. So when Fernando finally got the player working properly and they all settled in for the film, Quinn was totally aware of Eve.

It felt like all his senses were on alert and he didn't understand the feeling. He could hear her light breathing, feel her long hair tickling his arm, and he found himself so wired up about being this close to her that he couldn't have said what the film was about. Was it a horror, a romance? Were his new friends enjoying it? Who the fuck knew. Not him, that was for sure.

He just didn't understand this at all though. He didn't know a thing about Eve, they'd had one conversation and even that hadn't lasted five minutes. He wanted to be her friend, nothing more. Okay, so he was attracted to her. So what? He was attracted to Gracie too but wasn't going to do anything about it, even if that did have more to do with the fact that she was Killian's girlfriend.

He was still figuring out who he was in this new bizarre world he had ended up in, so he didn't want a girlfriend right now, thank you very much. And even if he did, he always went for the popular outgoing types – Raven was more his type than Eve was, let's be honest.

Friends. He only wanted to be friends with Eve.

However he couldn't stop himself from thinking: _why does that feel like a lie?_

* * *

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Eve and Quinn have their first homework session together.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: sorry for not updating for a while, I had no internet and was busy preparing for university. I've still been writing though and at the moment I have up to Chapter 6 of this written. I'll post what I've written daily most likely, to give me time to edit and proofread.

Hope you like the chapter, please review! :)

* * *

 **Friday 18** **th** **September 2020**

A whole week passed before the class were given any Biology homework, for which Eve was grateful. She was dreading having to go through with the homework sessions she had promised Quinn.

Since Leigh became her new roommate, the other girl had been pretty much forcing Eve to be sociable. She joined Leigh's friends for meals during the day, and often hung out with them after school, and they were almost always joined by Raven, Quinn, and Flash. Though despite being a part of their group now, Eve still hung back in the shadows and rarely spoke her opinion in fear of being the centre of attention or saying something wrong. She was also constantly worried Raven would tell her to get lost, but it seemed like her sister was content enough with her being there as long as they didn't have to interact at all. This was fine with Eve too; she didn't want to be around Raven much either. Too many memories, and not all them were good.

One would have thought that Eve would have been comfortable around Quinn by now after spending so much time with him, but that was certainly not the case. Truth was, he made her nervous even when they were in a big group together. He was just so confident and well-spoken (and flirted with pretty much every girl except Eve), and every day he tried to pull her into the conversation which just put too much pressure on her. But a part of her wanted to talk to him, wanted to spill all her secrets and never shut up, and she didn't like that part of her one bit.

After last period that day, Eve rushed towards the library as fast as she could. She wasn't looking forward to what was about to happen, but she'd be damned if she wasn't as punctual as she should be. Serious lateness could lead to confrontation and why on Earth would she want that? Still though, she ended up being ten minutes late. Her palms were sweaty and her heart was pounding as she finally pushed the dark oak door of the school library open.

Eve loved the library here. It was old-fashioned, just like ones she saw in American films. It was huge, with three separate floors, the upper two circling the outside of the first so the centre of the room stretched all the way up to the top ceiling. All the shelves were a dark oak, with moving ladders to reach the higher shelves, and the books were organised alphabetically and by subject. There were large tables that would seat a number of people, as well as smaller tables that would seat one or two. The layout of the shelves meant there were plenty of nooks and crannies on all three floors that a person could hide away in and be left alone for hours on end. Eve would know; she'd managed to do just that on more than one occasion.

Her favourite feature was the ceiling. Walking into the centre of the main floor, she looked all the way up and let out a small smile at the beautiful artwork. It was a mural, depicting a man and a woman. Both were half naked and clinging onto each other, a golden light encasing their bodies. Using her savant power, Eve's eyes could zoom in and see all the little details such as: the crinkling around the eyes of the man as he smiled at the woman; the small daisies threaded into the woman's hair; and birds soaring in the air behind the couple, beaks open as if they were singing a tune. According to the plaque in the corner of the ceiling, the couple were supposed to be soulfinders that had just found each other, and the golden light was meant to be the ethereal connection between them. Looking at the mural always made Eve warm inside. She was a romantic at heart and found this to be a wonderful portrayal of soulfinders.

Looking away from the mural, she started searching amongst the rows of shelves where she knew there were tables. It was alright for her to arrange to meet Quinn here, but they really should have specified exactly where in the library they would meet. It could take her ages to find him, which would just make her even more late than she already was.

She jogged up the thin steel spiral staircase to the second floor and continued her search. Halfway through she went to the railing and peered down to see if maybe she had missed him whilst looking on the first floor. No such look. After another few minutes of looking, she finally found him in a quiet corner of the third floor.

He was slouched in his seat, tapping a rhythm on the table with his pen. When Eve quietly cleared her throat as she approached him, Quinn suddenly sat up straight and dropped his pen to the table. The corners of his lips turned up into a little smile as Eve sat down across from him and began pulling what she needed out of her bag. She couldn't meet his eyes and already felt a blush growing on her cheeks. _Damn it_. And why did he pick this table out of all of them? This was supposed to be for only one person and it was clear to her that he must have pulled an extra chair over here. The small size of the table meant that they were much closer that she would have preferred.

"Fifteen minutes late," Quinn mused, humour in his voice. "I was starting to think you weren't going to show up, you don't really strike me as the kind of person to be late."

"I'm not," she grimaced.

"Me neither. My father drilled that into my head from a very young age," he replied. Eve wasn't surprised that he called his dad 'father', he was definitely posh enough to be one of those people. "So, what happened?"

Knowing he was referring to the lateness, she shyly met his eyes and explained. "I had a free period and was in my bedroom reading a book. I kind of lost track of time, I'm sorry."

"That's alright, don't worry about it," he said kindly. Everything about him screamed that he was totally okay with this situation and Eve wanted to feel comfortable around him, she really did, but her entire body was tense and her hands were shaking and her mouth was dry and she just didn't like being alone with him. It wasn't anything about him personally, expect maybe for the fact that he was super good-looking and she wasn't used to being around that, but it was more the fact that she simply didn't like being alone with anyone that she didn't know really well.

"So," Quinn pointed down at his open schoolbook. "I was reading through the homework before you arrived and I don't even know where to start. We have to talk about tissues in the body. I get that they're a group of cells that work together, but we have to identify the four types and talk about them... I cannot for the life of me remember what those four types are."

Eve looked down at her own work, glad for an excuse to not have to look at Quinn. It calmed her racing heart a little. "Well there are the two obvious types: nerve and muscle," she began to explain. Her voice was more steady now that she was talking about schoolwork. Work was safe and wasn't personal, and she knew that her answers were right which made it easier for her to talk to him. "Then there's connective and epithelial. I think it's best if we go through them one at a time. We have to talk about their structure more than anything, which is fairly easy as long as you don't get them mixed up. I drew some diagrams in class that help me remember which one's which, take a look at them." She spun her book around and pushed it forward a little so he could see.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, they discussed the different tissues without taking any notes. Eve was slightly surprised with Quinn – it wasn't that he didn't know the answers, but it was that he didn't have much faith in himself when it came to this subject. It was the first time she had seen him not being certain of himself and having no confidence really didn't suit him. It did however make Eve a little more confident because he seemed less intimidating. Silver linings and all that...

When they finally started to answer the questions on their homework sheet, they were sat in silence for the most part. It seemed that Quinn had easily remembered a lot of what they had just spoken about and didn't need her help so much. Eve was usually relaxed when sat in silence with a person, but with Quinn her body was constantly on edge and she kept looking up for a small glimpse of him before looking quickly back down at her work. Strangely, she got the same feeling he was doing the same with her.

"I'm confused," he broke the silence at last, frowning and biting on his bottom lip. It was slightly endearing to see a more vulnerable side of him. "What's the function of connective tissue? I was going to write it helps other tissues, but now I keep thinking that they're something to do with the organs..."

"They're both right," she clarified for him. Why did she feel proud that he knew this without her having to tell him? Sure, he hadn't known this half an hour ago and only knew it because of her, but she barely knew the guy so why would she be proud of him? She continued talking about tissues with him so that her thoughts wouldn't linger on this. "There's different kinds of connective tissue that do different functions. Bone and tendon help other tissues do their jobs and hold them together, adipose tissue stores energy and sort of cushions the organs, and cartilage is between the bones of joints, it acts kind of like a shock absorber."

Understanding dawned on Quinn's face and he flashed her a cheeky grin. "Huh, I was right. How the hell do you remember all this?"

"I study a lot, there's nothing else to do. And I like Biology, I want to be a doctor when I'm older so I need to know this stuff." She stopped talking abruptly, eyes wide. She hadn't told anyone about her future aspirations, not even Raven back when they were still close. She didn't want to jinx it or have anyone tell her she couldn't do it.

"That's cool," Quinn responded, making Eve a little breathless. "I think you'd be really good at that. I don't know what I want to do yet, so hats off to you."

"Um, thanks," she said in almost a whisper. She smiled for the first time since she had joined him here.

He smiled back before going back to his work, and Eve immediately copied him. Heaven forbid she blurted out something else that she didn't want to tell anyone. She focused all her attention on the homework now and whizzed through it easily, finishing a full ten minutes before Quinn did. She checked his answers, pointing out little things that he needed to change or rephrase, and felt totally relieved by the time they were finally finished.

They packed away their things and left the library together. Quinn pointed out that it was close to teatime so they may as well just head over to the canteen together. Eve didn't like the idea of being alone with him any longer, having been happy their time was up, but didn't say this for obvious reasons.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you," Quinn suddenly said as they walked down a corridor decorated with artwork by year sevens. "Flash and I are off to the cinemas tomorrow to watch that new horror film. We're gonna ask the others if they want to come. You should too, it'll be fun to finally get out of this place. We'll probably go for something to eat afterwards as well. Are you in?"

Eve was hesitant to answer him. Money wasn't an issue. Her mum had started to put money into a shared bank account for her and Raven every month for this exact reason of them going out at weekends. It wasn't even an issue that the film was a horror. The issue was being around people. It would be different to sitting in the canteen with the group, it'd be a different environment and it would be awkward no matter who she ended up sat next to in the dark theatre. On the other hand, she really did want to get out of school at last and she knew which movie Quinn was talking about: it was one that she'd been looking forward to for months. Plus she was really trying not to be so antisocial because she really did want to have friends. She just struggled, that was all.

"C'mon," Quinn teased, nudging her with his elbow. "Don't be boring, Evie." _Evie?_ Since when did he call her that? Since when did anybody call her that? "I'll even let you share my popcorn. I always get a large salted, but I can eat sweet if that's your favourite."

Eve rolled her eyes and surprised herself by laughing. Salted popcorn was what she always got too actually, but she didn't tell him this. "Fine, I'll go. I don't get why it's so important to you that I do though."

"Because I want you there," he answered, now in a serious tone. Looking at his face, he looked genuine and that confused Eve. _Why_ would he want her there? All she'd been to him was rude, aside from the homework thing. As if he could read her mind he said, "I wish you'd stop thinking that no-one wants you around. We all really like you, of course we want you there."

Before Eve could even start to process this, a body pushed in-between her and Quinn, separating them. One arm draped over her shoulders, the other over Quinn's. Eve panicked for a moment, but it was only for a split second as she realised it was just Flash. He was loud, boisterous, and touchy-feely, but he was harmless. He also had a habit of sitting in-between her and Quinn if they were ever next to each other in the canteen, which she appreciated. It made her less of a nervous wreck not being so close to Quinn.

"How'd it go then?" Flash said, without even a hello first. "I bet he's thick as pig shit behind the perfect face, right Eve? I feel for you having to help him out. Must have been really difficult."

"Shut it," Quinn snapped but not in an angry way. He was grinning. "Hey so Flash, Eve's coming with us tomorrow."

They entered the canteen and joined the long queue, Flash letting go of the pair of them. They were stood in a triangle formation so Eve had no choice but to look at them. Flash looked confused. "Tomorrow?" He asked. "Eh? What's tomorrow?"

Quinn gave Flash a strict look. "You know," he said through clenched teeth. "We're going to the cinemas. We already had it planned, we're asking the others to go too."

"I don't remember..." Flash paused for a moment before raising his eyebrows at Quinn. "Ohhhh, right. The cinemas. Yep. Of course." He smiled down at Eve. "I have the worst memory."

Eve smiled back at him, not quite knowing how to respond. If she didn't know any better – that is to say, if she didn't know that Quinn would never want to ask her on a date and even if he did he wouldn't be afraid to ask her and wouldn't have made it a group date – she would have said that Quinn had made up the cinemas trip on the spot just to get her to go out with him and that's why Flash seemed so confused. But that was a ridiculous idea. Right?

She spun away from the boys so she was stood with her back to them as Flash started talking about some new girl that he had been chatting up. He was diverting all of Quinn's attention onto him and Eve revelled at finally having a moment to herself. There had been a lot of social interaction in the past hour and she was close to her breaking point.

* * *

Eve had eaten quickly and left the canteen before the others had even finished their own meals, giving them a collective and short 'see you tomorrow'. It'd been a hard meal. Quinn had told them all how great she was at tutoring him and she'd frozen when they'd all looked over at her. She couldn't cope with the attention. For some reason though, it'd been Raven that had come to her rescue by changing the subject. Her twin hadn't looked at her again which had really upset Eve. She still didn't like being around her sister either, but she also wished things would go back to how they used to be too. But it was too late for that, the past was too much of a big deal, there was no going back.

She sat down on the edge of her bed and reached for her mobile, which she'd left on her bedside table this morning. Two missed calls from her older sister, Oceana. At twenty-six years old, Oceana now lived with her soulfinder and their three year old daughter, but she was still very close with the family. She was more of a mother to Eve than her actual mum was.

She dialled Oceana's number; it rang five times before it was answered. In the background she heard a screeching child before she heard her sister's voice. "Jack! Could you see to her please? I'm on the phone!" Muffled conversation before her sister was back. "Hey, Eve. Sorry about that."

"No worries," Eve replied, understanding that it must be hard to have such an energetic child and an author soulfinder who was always hidden away in his office. "What did you call me for?"

"Just to see how you and Raven were doing at your new school. I would have called Rave, but you know she rarely ever answers. Mum said you were in the same room," she approached the subject cautiously, fully aware of the relationship the twins now had. "How's that going? I hope you're not letting her push you around, I know she can be very bossy."

"No it's okay, she switched rooms with someone else. It's better this way."

"If you say so. You know, it's still hard knowing that you two aren't inseparable anymore. But I guess I can't blame you after what happened with Lavender... Anyway. I hope you're making friends, I hate to think of you being on your own."

"I have friends. Kind of. It's the same group Raven hangs around with so we're still around each other a lot. Oshie," she used her sister's nickname, the name her and Raven had called her when they were little because they couldn't say Oceana. "How's mum? She hasn't called me since I got here and she never answers the phone when I call her. Even though I overheard Raven on the phone to her yesterday. I mean I'm not surprised she doesn't want to talk to me, but I'm worried about her. What's going on with that thing at work? Did she ever hear anything back about it?"

Eve's mum worked for the savant net, helping out with different divisions and earning a fair amount of money doing so. In August a complaint had been made her against her that could cost her her job, and if she lost her job they'd all be screwed because they had nothing in savings.

"Oh yeah," Oceana replied. "The complaint got dropped, I guess the person changed their mind or something. You don't have to worry about it anymore. And don't feel bad about mum not calling you Eve, she's not worth it. What she thinks of you... Well she has issues and she's wrong, okay? Right, Jack's just taken Isla upstairs to settle her down so I am all yours. I want to hear all about your classes, your teachers, your friends... Everything. Tell me everything."

Eve smiled and lay down on her bed to get comfy, ready for a long conversation with her sister. She had never felt fully welcome in her own home, had always looked forward to the day she would go to university and get to move out. But talking to her sister that evening, she started to feel incredibly homesick and lonely.

* * *

 **A hint about the next chapter:** An eventful day at the cinemas.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: So this chapter has a few scene jumps because it just felt right to do it that way when I was writing it. I'm not totally set on this chapter, whether it was too corny or too dramatic or whatever, but I hope you like it. Let me know.

* * *

 **Saturday 19th September 2020**

The cinemas that the group had gone to was in a small town about half an hour away from the academy. They'd already purchased their tickets but had a while before the film started and weren't allowed into the room yet.

It wasn't the kind of cinema that Quinn was used to. The ones in London that he went to were huge, and they were always quite modern and clean. This cinema was small, just five screens in total, and was quite old-fashioned with its antique seating and furnishings. There was a small arcade area, attached to a group of old tatty sofas, and music from famous movie soundtracks was playing on a loop.

Sat on the sofa alone, he watched as his friends played various different games in the arcade. They were the only ones here which was strange for a Saturday, but according to Flash there was a bigger cinema complex a few streets away that most people went to instead as they showed more of a variety of films from overheard speakers.

For a few minutes he watched Gracie beat Killian in a game of table ice hockey, before his eyes inevitably drew towards Eve Fox. He hadn't spoken to her much all morning, not even when they ended up sat next to each other on the bus, because to be honest he was rather worried about how attached he was growing towards her. He told himself that it was just as friends, like it was with the other girls in the group, but he couldn't deny that he was attracted to her and wanted to get past her shyness and get to know her better. He was trying to put distance between them but it was a losing battle, especially seeing as he knew he had be somewhat close to her to figure out how to stop his vision. He couldn't win. He would have to be close to her, even if his feelings about her were confusing him.

He couldn't help thinking that Eve looked hotter today than she ever had before. She was wearing a high waisted leather skirt that stopped at the tops of her thighs, a white lace bandeau top with thick shoulder straps, and white converse trainers. For the first time since he'd met her, her long hair wasn't down in loose waves and was instead tied into a fishtail braid. Eve was actually dressed quite similar to Raven, who had the same skirt on but had paired it with a red top tucked into the skirt and high heeled ankle boots. It was probably the first day they actually looked like twins to him, aside from the whole identical face thing.

She was stood alone, playing on a PAC-Man game when Fernando slid up beside her. Quinn was waiting for her to walk away with a blush on her face, or for her to cower in front of him instead of talking confidently, which is what he knew she would have done if he had approached her like that. She surprised him though.

Quinn frowned when Eve tilted her head back in laughter at something Fernando said before the pair squeezed tightly together as they played on the old machine together.

"You look jealous," he heard an amused voice say. He realised with a start that Raven had sat down next to him without making a sound.

"I'm not jealous," he answered maybe a bit too quickly, sounding way more defensive than he would have liked. "Just annoyed. She seems so comfortable with him, yet she barely even speaks to me. Girls usually love me but it's like Eve wants nothing to do with me. It just makes no sense, that's all."

Raven snorted. "Wow, Quinn. You couldn't have sounded more big-headed if you'd tried. If you haven't noticed every single other girl in this group can resist your charms too."

"That's because they all already have boyfriends though. And Leigh and Sam don't swing my way," he pointed out with a small smile.

"Well I don't fancy you. Maybe Eve doesn't either... Although I'm pretty sure she does," she said in an almost wistful tone. "Or maybe not. I have no idea, she's such a hard person to read sometimes and I've never seen her show interest in a guy so I don't know what she's like when she does. She's always been a nervous person, even when we were kids."

"But she looks fine with Fernando," he repeated as he watched Eve nudge Fernando out of the way in a playful way. "I only want to be friends with her, nothing more."

"Sure, I believe you," Raven said in a voice that said she clearly did _not_ believe him. "Just give her time, Quinn. It takes her a while to come out of her shell with most people."

"Why do you two not get along?" He blurted out. The question had been bugging him since he'd met the twins and his curiosity had finally got the best of him.

Raven tensed up before shaking her head and answering stiffly. "There's just a lot that has gone on in our family, that's all I want to tell you. Still though, even though I'm not close with Eve anymore, if you hurt her I'll kill you. Okay?"

Quinn grinned. "I'll definitely remember that."

* * *

Eve had a feeling this was going to be a long two hours. When they took their seats towards the front of the cinema room – to get to the back you had to go up quite a few stairs which they couldn't do because of Sam in her wheelchair – she somehow found herself at the end of the row with Quinn sat on her left. The thought of spending two hours sat next to him in darkness made her get the feeling of butterflies fluttering in her stomach and she just hoped it wasn't going to be as awkward as she was thinking it would be.

True to his word, Quinn had bought a large salted popcorn that was placed on the plastic armrest between them for them both to share. As the trailers for other films began, she looked over at him and saw that he was watching the screen intently and, although it may have been from the lights coming from the screen, he looked kind of green.

Without letting herself think about her next actions (she knew thinking would make her stop herself), she sat up straighter in her classic red seat and leaned into him. "Are you okay?" She whispered. "You've been quiet all day which isn't like you."

He turned his head and smiled. Their faces were so close together she could feel his breath on her face as he answered her, also speaking in a whisper. "The truth? I hate horror movies. I have done ever since I went downstairs one night and caught a few minutes of one my father was watching. Honestly, I'm shit scared right now and it hasn't even started yet." He let out a quiet, shaky laugh that made Eve realise he was really telling the truth.

"Why did you choose to watch this one then?" Her heart was racing at being so close to him but maybe it was because of the darkness, or because nobody else was paying attention to them, or just because she was seeing another vulnerable side to him that she hadn't imagined, she found herself not wanting to pull away. Sure she was still blushing, but it's not like it was a new experience for her.

"It was the only one I knew was actually being shown right now," he chuckled a little. "God, I'll be so embarrassed if I start flinching or even screaming."

Eve rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll be fine. But if you're not, you can always hold my hand for comfort." The smile disappeared from her face and she widened her eyes in horror. Had she really just said that? Had she just flirted with him? Was that even what flirting was? _Oh my god, why did I say that?!_ She thought to herself in a panic, pulling away from Quinn so she was sat properly in her seat.

She looked forward at the screen, unable to look back at him. It was a long moment later that felt like much longer when he leaned into her this time and whispered, "I may just take you up on that offer."

She stopped breathing for a second.

* * *

Later, they were halfway into the movie and Eve felt both glad and disappointed that Quinn hadn't needed her 'comfort' at all. She could see him flinching at the jump moments and his hand sometimes shook when he reached for some popcorn, but he otherwise seemed fine.

It was when the film finally started getting to the gruesome bits that she saw a big change in him. Eve loved horror films, loved the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the gruesome bits were always her favourite as odd as that sounded. It was obvious that Quinn didn't feel the same way. He hunched into himself and seemed to be trying to not even look at the screen. Eve had to press her lips together to stop herself from laughing at him. Didn't want to seem like a cruel bitch, after all.

She focused back on the film and it was another five minutes before she felt it. Quinn's hand, sneaking under the armrest and seeking hers; finding it, he linked their fingers together and clung to her, almost painfully squeezing her. Eve took a quick intake of breath, her head flicking to look at him. He wasn't looking at her which was probably for the best considering she may be expected to say something and she had no idea what the right thing to say would be.

She looked away from him reluctantly, wanting to study his face and see what he was thinking, and for a second thought about how nice it felt to hold his hand. His skin was smooth and warm, slightly clammy with sweat, and seemed to mould perfectly to hers.

The movie finally ended and the lights came up. With that, Quinn pulled his hand from Eve's and she flexed her fingers; they felt cramped after not having been moved for a long time. Quinn had held her hand for the whole second half of the movie. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him turn in his seat to face her but again, she couldn't look at him.

She knew that she was blushing like hell which wasn't surprising. She didn't know how she felt about holding his hand, just that it made her feel even more tense around him.

"No, no, sit back down!" Allie demanded at the group as they started to rise, ready to follow the other people from the room. "I like watching the credits. Please, just wait a few more minutes?"

Eve fell back into her seat when she realised the others were obeying Allie and prayed that Quinn wouldn't start a conversation with her. Of course, she couldn't get her own way though.

"Eve-"

Her phone vibrated and she gave Quinn an apologetic look for the interruption before pulling the device from her bra – she had no pockets or a bag with her, what else was a girl to do? - and quickly unlocking it. '1 new text message from unknown number' was written across the screen. She opened the text.

 **That was a nice movie, now wasn't it? Although I have to admit I was watching you more than it. Who is the boy you were holding hands with? Your boyfriend? Can't say I'm not a little brokenhearted. Your hair looks lovely braided, by the way. I like it. I'll be seeing you soon, my love.**

With a sense of dread overtaking her, Eve peered around her at the rest of the room but it was empty of other people by now. He had been here and she hadn't even known?! He must have been close behind her to notice hers and Quinn's hand-holding. She was aware of Quinn asking her if something was the matter but she couldn't stop frantically looking around the room as if a few more checks might reveal something the first hadn't.

Without a word to the others, she jumped up from her seat and ran from the room. In the corridor leading to different screens, there were small groups of people here and there as they left or entered the rooms. She couldn't see _him_ anywhere. He must have left straight away, knowing she would be terrified and probably enjoying that fact. He was such a... Such a...

A hand gripped her arm and she let out a squeal of scared surprise, spinning around. "Hey, it's just me," Quinn said, letting go of her and holding his hands up as if in surrender. "What's going on? You look like you've seen a ghost."

She looked up into his green eyes, wanting to tell him the truth yet knowing she couldn't. How could you admit something like this to somebody whom you barely knew? He'd judge her. He'd hate her. He'd agree that it was all her fault; everything that happened in the past was all her fault. He was looking at her with so much concern right now, as if he genuinely cared about her, and she couldn't bare for him to look at her with disgust, which is definitely what would happen if she told him, she was sure of it.

Tears sprung to her eyes and she silently cursed herself as they slid down her cheeks. She should have composed herself, told him everything was okay, but it was too late now. Damn it. She took a shaky step back from him, brushing tears from her face and looking around for an escape route. Why did he follow her? Why not just leave her alone?! It's not like someone like him would actually be interested in her in any way, so why pretend?

She was breathing rapidly and knew that she was close to a panic attack. She'd had loads of them right after it happened, not that anyone in her family knew that. Nobody knew that. She shook her head quickly, over and over again, not knowing what to say or how to calm herself down.

When Quinn reached out for her again, she stepped out of his way and managed to talk in gasping breaths as she sobbed. "I need Raven," she surprised herself by saying. "Get Raven. I need Raven."

She made her escape then, fast-walking to the end of the corridor and pushing open the door for the ladies' bathroom. By some miracle, it was empty. She slammed the door of a cubicle open, flipping the lid of the toilet down and sitting on it. Then she buried her head in her hands and cried her eyes out.

When she heard the bathroom door open, she didn't even have the energy to lock the door of her cubicle to give herself some privacy but it didn't matter.

"Eve." She looked up and through her tears saw the blurry sight of her sister leaning against the doorframe of her cubicle, a frown marring her face. "Quinn said you were hysterical about something. Sam said it might have been the movie, but I know you like horrors so that's not the problem. What's going on?"

She held her phone out to Raven, the text still open on the screen. "Read that."

A moment later, Raven's eyes met hers again. "Is this from who I think it's from?" She asked in a flat, pissed off tone.

Eve nodded slowly. "I think so." She then went on to tell her about the photos she'd been sent when they first started the academy, panicking even more as she realised just how dire the situation was. "What are we going to do, Rave?"

"Nuh uh," Raven thrust the phone back into Eve's hand, shaking her head defiantly. "Not we. You. What are _you_ going to do? I'm not going to be the one to tell you that either. You're on your own here, Eve. You got yourself into this mess and didn't trust me enough to tell me what was happening then. You didn't need me then so you don't need me now. Especially after what happened to Lavender..." She didn't finish her sentence, instead giving Eve an accusing glare.

Just the look that Eve knew Quinn would have given her if she'd told him the whole story.

Maybe it had been naïve of her, but she'd thought that Raven would come in here and be lovely to her. That she'd calm her down in the way she always used to be able to, that she'd tell her how to handle the situation. Raven's true response was totally justified, but it still hurt.

"Please," she pleaded, looking up at her sister's unforgiving face. "I'm sorry, Raven. You know I am. I'm scared, please don't make me go through this alone."

"You have to," Raven snapped. "God, Eve. What do you expect me to say? That everything's going to be okay and he'll leave you alone eventually? I doubt that'll happen. I don't want you to get into trouble but you can't come running to me every time you're scared; not anymore. If it gets to a point where you're in serious danger, then sure, I'll help. But a few photos and a text? That's harmless."

"I don't know what to do..."

"You're going to stand up and come over here," Raven commanded, mouth in a flat and unamused line. "I'm going to redo your make up-"

"I don't have any on," Eve interrupted her.

"Well, I'll put some on them. Just concealer and foundation, so no one can tell you've been crying. Then we'll join the others again, you'll say you got a text off mum and got a little homesick, then we're going to go for something to eat and you're going to be fine. Nobody likes a Debbie Downer, and I'm sure you don't want to look like a mess in front of everyone, am I right?" Eve nodded; Raven continued speaking. "Exactly. Come on, then. Make up."

It was funny, Eve thought to herself as she followed Raven towards the mirrors and sinks, that Raven said Eve didn't need her and couldn't help with her with everything. Because now, in her own weird way, taking care of Eve was exactly what Raven was doing.

* * *

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Somebody agrees to go on a date.


	6. Chapter 6

**Monday 21st September 2020**

Quinn, sat on the lower level of the academy's library, tilted his back to look at the mural on the ceiling. _Soulfinders_. That's what the mural was about. So far he'd spoken to a number of people telepathically, and none of the girls had felt any different in his mind to how the boys felt which, according to all the facts about soulfinders he'd been educated about, meant that he hadn't yet found his soulfinder.

Despite being unsure still of the idea of soulfinders, he was drawn to the mural. Quinn wasn't usually into art – his mother was though, so he'd been to plenty of art gallery openings, and he knew good art when he saw it. This mural was magnificent and he made a note to take a photo one day to show his mother. He didn't know why he liked it so much, but he found it so captivating and always looked at it as soon as he came into the library. It made him feel warm inside, made his heart flutter in his chest – his mother had always told him that art is always best when it makes the viewer feel something.

It was a free period for him and he had come here to study away from the distractions of Flash and the other guys on their floor in the dormitories. He was reading up on a topic he was already well versed in so after just ten minutes he was already bored and found himself looking around the library for anything else to do.

The other people weren't interesting to him, most of them being students younger than him that he didn't know. He did see a girl from his own year, whom he had no classes with but had seen around and at parties, who caught his eye. Her name was Polly Brooks and with her long legs, blonde locks, and stuck-up demeanour, she was exactly like all of Quinn's ex-girlfriends. She was his usual type and he couldn't help but grin at her when she gave him a flirty smile before leaving the library with a friend.

As the large door swung shut behind Polly and her friend, Quinn began to pack his things back into his school bag. He couldn't stay here bored out of his mind any longer. Maybe he could get in a little nap before his next lesson, God knew he needed it after Flash's snoring keeping him up half the night.

He took one last look up at the mural and caught sight of a flash of purple hair disappearing around a bookcase of the top floor of the library. _Eve,_ her name came into his mind and he just knew that it was her, even though logically he knew that she wasn't the only person with purple hair.

Thinking back to Saturday, he started to rush up the stairs to find her. It had been such a mental day. First, feeling embarrassed about being afraid of the movie. And then holding Eve's hand, adrenaline pumping through his veins; he hadn't been relaxed, not at all, had been so aware of her presence next to him. It'd been nice holding her hand, more than nice. It had been electric, a totally new experience for him.

Then it'd been ruined when she'd looked at her phone and ran out in a state. Eve had said she'd been homesick, but he'd wondered if it had been more than that. She'd looked composed when her and Raven rejoined the group, but she had been even quieter than normally, hadn't said a single word, on the way back. She'd gone straight to her bedroom afterwards without even saying a goodbye, and he hadn't seen her since. He had, however, been thinking about her. A lot. What the hell was that about?

When he finally found Eve, she was curled up on a sofa in a quiet corner, a hardback copy of Jane Eyre open in her lap. Sensing his presence, she looked up and seemed startled to seem him stood ahead of her.

"Hey," Quinn greeted her, casually sitting next to her. "I take it you have a free period too?"

"Yeah," she said quietly, nodding her head once. "Did you come here to study?"

"Got bored," he explained. "I'm thinking of signing up for the rugby team, just so I have something to do in my free time. Can't be studying all the time, no good can come of that."

Eve cracked a smile. "No, we can't be having that, can we?" She closed her book and turned to angle herself towards him. Quinn mirrored her. He watched her open her mouth as if to say something but she stopped herself.

"Why do you do that?" He asked. Seeing her confused look, he clarified. "Not ask things when you want to. We're friends, right? So I just don't get why you don't talk to me. Or anyone much, really. Why are you so shy?"

Eve shrugged, looking uncomfortable and unable to meet his eyes. "You can't just ask me that and expect a proper answer. It's like me asking why you're always so confident. I just... Find it hard, that's all. It takes me a while to get close to people."

Quinn thought about this for a moment and realised she was right: he shouldn't have just asked her like that. To be so shy, and then have someone ask you why you were so shy, put you on the spot which would obviously make you feel worse and more reluctant to speak to the person. He thought quickly for a solution and eventually said, "how about if we play a game?"

Eve raised her eyebrows and blinked a few times before asking slowly, "what do you mean, a game?"

"Well, my only cousins live in Canada so I don't get to see them often. When I do see them, we play this game so we can catch up on everything in each other's lives that we've missed. It's called Truth, and it's pretty basic. We take turns asking each other questions, it can be something really easy or something personal, and you have to answer truthfully. If you don't want to answer the question, you say 'pass', but that means you forfeit the game and the other person wins. It can go on for ages, weeks even. It's just a fun way to know someone. The aim of the game is to build up to the questions that are harder to answer... I just thought that it might make it easier to talk openly to me if it feels more like a game to you."

She looked back at him quizzically, lips pursed. She tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Okay, I'll try it. So if I don't want to answer a question, I don't have to?"

"Nope. But it'll mean that you lose the game."

"What does the winner get?" She tilted her head, smiling.

"Ah, I don't know. The right to brag to everyone else?" He laughed. "Shall we start now? My first question is..." He wanted to ask for the truth about Saturday, but had a feeling that may be pushing it too soon. "Tell me about your family."

"Technically not a question."

He rolled his eyes at her sudden sarcasm; it reminded him of Raven. "Just answer it."

"Alright, fine. Well, my parents are separated – we live with my mum, my dad lives in Los Angeles now with his new wife and their toddler, Alice. Mum and dad had seven children: first there's my brother Ash, then Rowan, then Oceana, then Hope, then Lavender, Raven and myself. I'm the youngest by four minutes, so I'm the seventh. Only me, Raven, and Hope live at home now. And Hope's son Jordan, she had him a year ago when she was nineteen. We all live in Manchester, except Ash who moved to Yorkshire for his soulfinder. Oceana has a three year old called Isla. Ash has four kids: eight year old twins Daniel and Thomas, five year old Theo, and a newborn called Nicholas. It's a pretty big family."

Quinn was sure this was the most he had heard her talk all at once, and was happy Truth was making her talk to him. Maybe he'd eventually find out if someone in her past could hurt her and lead to the vision he had of her? He'd have to take this game very seriously. "You and your siblings have strange names," he mused.

It wasn't a question, nor was it his turn now, but she replied anyway. "My mum's fault, we all say she has this superstitious hippy vibe going on. Did you know that Eve is just my nickname? My full name is Evening. Evening Star Fox." Quinn tried to hold in his chuckle but she caught it. "I know, it's ridiculous. Raven's middle name is Dove. We've always resented our mum for calling us that, and dad for letting her."

"I don't blame you," he smirked. "Evie, I do believe that it's your turn to ask me a question."

"Tell me about _your_ family."

"That's not a question." She narrowed her eyes and he laughed. "There's not much to tell about my family, to be honest. I was adopted when I was a baby, and all I know about my real mother was that she was young and didn't think she could provide enough for me. I'm an only child. No savants in the family, just me. I used to be really close with my parents, even though they work a lot, but since someone from the net turned up and told me what I was, there's been a sort of distance between us."

"Why do you think that is?" Eve asked kindly.

Finding her really easy to talk to, the answer came quickly to him and he didn't even think about how personal this had gotten so soon. "They won't admit it," he started, "but I think they're a little afraid of what I can do. Just the fact that I have powers they don't understand, they're not sure how to handle it. They still call me every day and all that, but they're uncomfortable talking about the savant stuff. I think it'll just take them time, you know?"

"That makes sense, of course it'd be hard to find out this whole secret race exists. I guess I'm lucky that I come from a family of savants. We're actually one of the oldest savant families, quite famous with the net too. Not _Benedict_ famous, but my mum and dad both do a lot of work with the net, so we're well known."

"I'm not surprised with a family that big," he joked. "Okay, Truth. What's with the hair?"

Eve scoffed a burst of laughter, his question unexpected. He liked her laugh, wished she would laugh like that more often. He got comfy in his seat, deciding that for the rest of the period he was going to keep her talking by asking silly questions that would make her relax and laugh.

* * *

Quinn was getting in a nap after last period before it was teatime, when he was awoken by the bedroom door flying open. Squinting his eyes open, he watched as Flash kicked the door closed behind him. He was flushed and a little out of breath, as if he had ran all the way here.

" _Dude_ ," he said, eyes wide. "You will not believe what has just happened."

Quinn groaned, still tired. He sat up in his bed, leaning back against the wall – unlike Flash's side, his walls were bare of any posters or photographs. The only photo he had was one of him and his parents, framed and on his bedside table. "Let me guess. Some unbelievably hot girl agreed to go on a date with you as long as it's a double date with me involved." This had in fact already happened, more than once. Quinn had yet to agree to a double date, but there was still time yet he supposed.

"Actually, yeah, but that's not what I ran here to tell you." He had a triumphant look on his face about knowing something Quinn didn't.

"Ok, I'll bite. What's going on?"

"There's been another suicide." This was said as if it was something super exciting and fun, not something totally morbid. But that's the way things were with high school: if it was something to gossip about, you could be guaranteed people weren't going to mope around about it. "A year ten girl, Clarissa Caine. You know Charlie from down the hall? It's his little sister. Raven and Gracie found her. Apparently they were supposed to be helping her get ready for a date – Gracie knows her from the stables, Clarissa helps out there. They went in her room and found her in the shower, totally naked and collapsed on the floor. Raven said she'd used a razor to cut her wrists, said there was blood everywhere."

"That's horrible," Quinn gasped. He couldn't believe this had happened, so soon after the girl who had hanged herself. How had the academy let this happen? How had nobody noticed that these girls were depressed enough to do this? And the first girl, how had the patrolling guards not seen her in time to stop her? "Poor Charlie, I bet he's devastated. You ran all the way here to tell me this?"

"Of course I did!" Flash exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. "Do you not know what this means? The school halls are going to be filled with crying girls, even those that didn't know Clarissa will probably be upset because it's so sad. Which means they'll need a shoulder to cry on and who's going to be there for them? We are, Quinn. It's the perfect way to get close to the ladies."

"Ugh." Quinn grabbed a cushion and threw it at Flash, who dodged out of the way before it hit him. "You're disgusting, Flash."

Flash just grinned and waggled his eyebrows. "We should get going, they need us," he laughed. "Listen, about the double date this weekend..."

"No, Flash," he sighed. He didn't want to go on a date with some random girl when he was just starting to get close to Eve. He couldn't deny anymore that he liked her, that he had thought of the possibility of being more than friends. A part of him was saying don't get too attached though, what if the vision actually happens? It would hurt him so much more if they were more than friends.

"Aw, please! It's Alison Mead, the redhead with the big boobs. You have no idea how much work I put into getting her to go out with me. She finally said she would, as long as you come out with us. Her friend, Polly Brooks – who is also totally hot – apparently fancies the pants off you. Come on. Polly Brooks, man. It's not like you're getting a bad deal here. I need this, Quinn. Do this for your roommate and your absolute best friend. Please."

Quinn opened his mouth to say no again, but instead pictured that flirty smile he'd received from Polly earlier in the day. Flash had a point that it wasn't a bad deal for him, plus Polly was completely his usual type. He was still thinking of Eve but knew that she would no doubt never want to be with him in that way anyway – sure she'd flirted with him at the cinemas, but that could have just been harmless fun. What trouble could he get into by going on a date with Polly? It didn't mean he was going to marry the girl, for crying out loud. It was just one date. Besides, he did want to help Flash out, seeing as despite all his endless flirting he had yet to get lucky. He was sure that Flash was still a virgin.

"Fine, I'll go," he said to his friend, shaking his head in disbelief that Flash had finally got him to agree. "But you better bloody appreciate it."

"You're the best," a huge relieved smile appeared on Flash's face. "You never know, you might get lucky with Polly."

"Yeah maybe," Quinn laughed.

But it wasn't Polly he was thinking about.

* * *

Author's note: Ah, little unsure about this chapter. Polly's introduction was really rushed, I know - sorry, it was just the only way I could fit her in. There's a reason for the double date, just trust me on this.

Also I would like to note that the game 'Truth' was taken from a book I read recently called The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen. I just really liked the sound of it and thought Eve would relax more if she felt less under pressure.

I'd really appreciate it if you left reviews to reassure me this chapter wasn't a load of rubbish. Hopefully you liked it and I didn't let you down.

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Eve has an eventful Power Construction lesson; Raven makes a new friend.


	7. Chapter 7

**Tuesday 22** **nd** **September 2020**

Eve's Power Construction class consisted of ten students that were, on most lessons, split into two separate groups of five so the teachers could provide them with more of their attention. The four other students in Eve's half of the class, like her, had savant powers to do with the senses. As well as having micro eyesight, meaning she could literally zoom in on something, Eve could mimic all sounds.

Her teacher was a tall, broad man who looked to be in his late twenties. Simon Bale was handsome, with his dark hair and baby blue eyes, but Eve didn't fawn over him like she had seen other students at the academy do. She didn't know why, considering she could totally see how attractive he was, but there was something about him that made her not have a crush on him.

Maybe it was the glasses that annoyed her because they constantly slid down his nose. Maybe it was the Manchester accent he had, one that she had heard her whole life and wasn't anything exciting to her. Or maybe it was the way he was always dressed to perfection, in a shirt and tie and sweater-vest that always seemed to either be black or grey.

She wasn't sure why she didn't fancy him and obsess over him despite him being cute.

Simon (he insisted on the students calling him by his first name, as many of the teachers did) was explaining to the five students in front of him how important their powers were. "They might not seem that impressive to you," he said, eyes looking pointedly at a girl called Lou who hated her power of having a brilliant sense of smell. "Senses are something everybody has though, and something that everybody relies on. So being able to extend that sense into something more is extraordinary and can come in handy during any situation…"

At the end of the speech, Simon started to work through an exercise with one of the other students and Eve waited patiently for her turn. Cross-legged on the hard floor of the PC hall, she leaned back on her arms and glanced over at the other side of the room.

The five students over there all had powers dealing with time. Quinn Chamberlain for example, was there because he could apparently see the future. Eve thought this was pretty cool and wondered why Quinn didn't ever talk about it – she made a mental reminder to ask him the next time they played Truth.

Currently, Quinn was sat off from the rest of the group with his hands on his knees. His eyes were closed, his brows furrowed. He was deep in concentration but the flush on his cheeks suggested that he was frustrated about whatever he was supposed to be doing. Eve resisted the urge to reach out telepathically to him and ask him what was wrong.

"Eve?" She heard Simon saying her name. Looking forward again she saw the clock on the wall behind him: she'd been watching Quinn for over ten minutes. How embarrassing. At least he hadn't caught her watching him; that would have been hard to explain. "I have something new I want you to try today, do you think you're up for that?"

Eve nodded nervously. So far he'd had her doing easy things, like copying her classmates' voices or reading a book from the opposite side of the hall. She always hated these lessons regardless, mainly because of the other four in her group watching her the whole time. She hated being the centre of attention.

"Brilliant," Simon quickly replied, standing up from the chair he'd been sat on. "Today we're going to work on your eyesight. Follow me." She stood up, aware of Lou and the other three following too, and was led over to a large window. The window looked out to the woodlands behind the school. "Earlier this morning I painted something onto the trunk of one of those trees. I want you to find it from here and tell me what it is."

"Okay," her voice was quiet, acknowledging her task.

It sounded easy enough. She blinked and called her power to her, her sight going blurry as her eyes adjusted. As the blurriness disappeared and everything looked normal again, she picture a dial in her mind. Slowly turning the dial made the trees appear to be moving closer towards her - an illusion, with the truth being that her eyes were just zooming it.

Her sight was close enough now that it was like looking at a clear, HD picture of the treeline. She still couldn't see anything painted onto the trees though.

Sensing her struggle, Simon spoke from beside her. "You need to push your power even further than you ever have before. We're testing your limit here and discovering just how far you can see. Try your very best and if you still can't see it, then we know that your eyesight isn't as strong as we all think it is. You can do whatever you put your mind to, Little Miss Eve."

The last sentence made her freeze. Someone had said that to Eve once before, those exact words. Someone that Eve wanted to forget all about. _It's just a coincidence_ , she said to herself in an effort to calm down. _Just focus on the task you've been given._

Eve took a deep breath and stared back out at the trees. She'd always thought that woodlands were boring places, but with her power working its magic on her eyes, she could see the birds rustling the leaves, and could see insects climbing the trunk, and realised that so much went on in a woodlands that anybody who called them boring was wrong in the head.

She imagined turning the dial halfway, the most she had ever done, which made her able to see every line in the bark of the trees and all the tiny legs of the flies and insects moving around. Determined to pass this task – so she hated to fail anything in a class, what was the big deal in that? – Eve swung the dial all the way round quickly. Logically, she knew that she should have slowly built up to having her eyesight at the most zoomed in it would go, but she hadn't been thinking it through at that particular moment.

She just managed to catch sight of a tiny smiley face painted onto a tree mainly hidden by the branches of other trees, before movement to the right startled her. A grey parka, just like the one _he_ used to wear, was a couple of trees away from the smiley face. It was caught on a sharp branch and was fluttering in the breeze. Terror swept over her: was it his?

She tried zooming in more to see any other details on the coat, but her power had reached its limit and she was stretching it too far. The power seeped out of her eyes and back into her body and a twinge of pain flared in the centre of her forehead. She cried out in agony and stumbled away from the window, clutching her head.

Oh, it hurt so much. It felt like someone was squeezing her brain, like her head was going to explode. It wouldn't stop. She heard Simon saying something as if from a distance but couldn't hear him over the high-pitched wailing that was echoing in her ears. As she fell to her knees, she realised the wailing was her screaming and she knew everyone would be watching her but she couldn't stop. She was in so much pain, tears dripping down her face and her whole body trembling.

What the hell was wrong with her? Was this what would happen every time she tried to push her micro eyesight to the limit or was this something else entirely? She wished Raven were here: Raven was a healer and would no doubt be able to use her power to make Eve feel better.

Hands suddenly gripped hers and pulled them away from her head, down to her lap. The other hands kept a tight hold on her. She lifted her head and blinked through the tears until she could see properly again.

Quinn was knelt in front of her, his hands being the ones enclosing her own. The scream died from her lips and instead she started breathing heavily. Her heart was racing and she had the strange sensation of pins and needles all over her face. She couldn't breathe, had no control over her own body. She felt like she was going to die.

A panic attack. They were so familiar to her, but this felt worse than they ever had done before.

She looked into Quinn's eyes, praying he would be able to see the desperation she felt so that he would help her somehow, or call for somebody that would. Somehow in all of this, he still looked as calm and laid-back as he usually did. It was reassuring to her for some reason.

His lips started to move but it felt like her heart was pounding so loud that she couldn't hear him. She shook her head repeatedly, panicking even more now. Oh god, she couldn't breathe… She couldn't breathe…

" _Eve,"_ she heard Quinn's voice in her mind. A shiver went down her spine at the feeling it brought on, a feeling of peacefulness and righteousness. Instinctively she knew exactly what that meant for them both. _"Focus on me,"_ he continued. _"Good, there you go. Now breathe with me. In, out… In, out…"_

 _"_ _Okay,"_ she responded telepathically, weakly. She saw Quinn's eyes widen fractionally and his pupils dilate and just knew that he was feeling something similar to what she had just felt.

Instead of commenting on it though, he continued to count breaths with her.

After a few minutes of this, her tense body finally relaxed and it became easy for her to breathe again. Words couldn't describe how grateful she was that the panic attack was over, all thanks to Quinn's help. "Thank you," she whispered.

She felt like she had run a marathon and was exhausted now. She slumped forward, Quinn quickly wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his chest to stop her from face-planting onto the floor. She was aware of him saying something to Simon and the other teacher as her eyelids drifted closed and her entire being fell asleep.

* * *

Raven Fox stormed down the school hallway, pushing younger students out of the way as she went and ignoring their protests every time. She was seeing red she was that angry.

A classmate of hers had received a text that she'd then shown Raven: apparently Eve had freaked out in her PC class and had passed out. No more information had been given and her idiot of a teacher wouldn't let her go to the nurse's office to make sure her twin sister was alright. Then, when she'd responded in what she thought was a justifiable way but he thought was 'rude and disrespectful' he'd told her to go to the headteacher's office as soon as class ended.

So here she was, going not to her sister but to the formidable Mrs Burn. She only wanted to find out what had happened with Eve and make sure she wasn't dying or anything, but no. Clearly her teacher had no clue what family love was. Bastard.

She reached the office, a small white room with a black bench in front of the door with a plaque saying 'Mrs Burn'. A counter was at the far end of the room and Raven walked over, telling the receptionist her name and the teacher who had sent her here.

"Take a seat," the receptionist said in a bored voice, filing her nails and not even bothering to look at Raven. "Mrs Burn will call you in when she's ready."

Childishly, Raven stuck her tongue out at the woman even though it went unseen, before she spun around and dragged her bag across the carpet as she went over to the bench. There was another student sat there, one she'd seen around and knew was in the same year as she was. The guy had dark skin, a shaved head, and was wearing a t-shirt with an ironic quote about beer on it.

After sitting next to him for a long minute, she let out a long, annoyed sigh before glaring at him. He had been giving her looks since she sat down and she was sick of it. "What are you staring at me for? You're such a creep," she snapped.

The guy scoffed and pressed his lips together as if trying to stop himself from laughing. The corners of his lips turned up into a smile and his dark eyes, so dark they looked black, seemed to sparkle as they met hers. He was hot, Raven couldn't help but think, and had that sexy bad boy vibe going on. When he spoke, it was in an American accent, Texas by the sound of it. "I was just thinking about what I've heard people saying about you and wondering if it was true."

Raven folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips. "And what exactly have people been saying?"

"A lot of people call you The Ice Queen," he responded, still looking amused.

"And what do you think of that?"

"Hm. Well, from the impression you've been giving me right now, I'm inclined to agree with them. I have to admit though, it makes me even more interested in you. I've been watching you around school, Raven Fox, and you intrigue me."

"Auditioning for a teen vampire movie, are you?" She retorted, rolling her eyes.

The guy tilted his head to the side and simply looked at her before saying, "there's more than meets the eye to you, isn't there?"

Before Raven could reply – with what, she didn't know; his words had taken her by surprise – the door in front of them swung open. Mrs Burn stood there, her brown and grey hair in its trademark tight bun. "Micah," she said, looking at the boy next to Raven. "This is the third day in a row."

"I know," the boy – Micah – said. "How lucky for you, eh?"

Mrs Burn simply raised her eyebrows and gestured for him to go ahead of her into the office. Micah stood up and Raven saw that he was tall, over 6ft. He would have towered over her if she'd stood up next to him.

Micah took a few steps towards the office but stopped and looked back over his shoulder before they entered the room. "It was nice to officially meet you, Raven Fox. I guess I'll be seeing you around."

* * *

Author's note: I didn't originally plan to do scenes from Raven's POV, but she's one of those characters that just creep up on you until you end up giving them their own subplot. Haha. Let me know what you think about me doing more scenes from her POV :)

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Eve isn't alone when she wakes up in the nurse's office.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I'm glad you liked it :)

This is a short chapter unfortunately, which I'm sorry about! The next chapter will be an extra long one, so I'll make it up to you in that way haha :)

Please fave/follow/review x

* * *

 **Tuesday 22** **nd** **September 2020**

The soft whirring of the air conditioning and a clicking sound were the first sounds that Eve heard when she woke up. She opened her eyes before quickly closing them again when the overheard lighting felt too bright. She realised that she was laid down on an uncomfortable, thin mattress.

The memory of her head killing her and of Quinn calming her down came into her mind and her eyes shot open again. She couldn't believe that had really happened! She still wasn't entirely sure what had happened with the whole headache thing, but the Quinn thing… He was her soulfinder. She had felt it the moment his mind had spoken into hers and it was such a bizarre thing to now know that she didn't know what to think of it.

She looked to her left at where the clicking noise was coming from and discovered that Gracie Benedict was sat in a plastic chair, tapping away on her phone. As Eve slowly managed to pull herself into a sitting position, Gracie looked up and noticed she was awake. She put her phone down and gave Eve a smile. Gracie and Eve weren't exactly best friends, nor were they even really close, but Eve felt comfortable around her due to the fact they were constantly in the same group of friends.

Looking around the small room, Eve grasped that she was in the nurse's office and Gracie was the only other person in here with her. She looked back at the other girl and said quietly, "I remember what happened but I don't know why it did."

"The nurse thinks you just pushed your power too much and it caused you to pass out – you'd be surprised how often it happens here actually," Gracie explained politely, brushing a section of her long dark hair behind an ear. "Quinn carried you over here. I got a text from Raven asking me to come and sit with you. She would have been here herself, but she got in trouble for swearing at her teacher and she's in detention."

Eve didn't know what she was most stunned about: that Quinn, who'd always seemed like a really compassionate person behind the cocky façade, had left her here, or that Raven, who rarely acted like she cared anymore, had had the decency to make sure Eve wasn't alone when she woke up. It was a tough choice.

She had to admit to herself that she was disappointed Quinn wasn't here. It wasn't because she was in love with him, of course it wasn't – she barely knew the guy – but because she thought he'd at least want to talk about the whole soulfinder business. Eve hated confrontations and serious conversations, but she really thought they ought to discuss this.

Gracie's phone buzzed beside her and she gave Eve an apologetic look before picking it up. As she read the text, a sweet smile appeared on her face and she typed a fast reply. "How are you feeling?" She asked Eve, still clutching the phone in her hand.

"Fine," Eve nodded, trying and failing not to think of Quinn. She needed somebody to talk to about this. She normally would have gone to Raven but that wasn't an option for obvious reasons. Gracie was here, and she always seemed like a nice girl, so Eve decided that there was no harm in talking to her. She had to push through her shyness for just this moment, even if it did make her feel like she was going to pass out again. She nodded towards the phone and asked, "Was that Killian?"

Gracie gave a small laugh. "How did you know?"

"I guess I've only seen you smile like that when he's around," she shrugged, inwardly cringing at how silly she sounded. "So… You two are soulfinders, right? What happened when you found out? I mean, did you just jump into a relationship? Surely it's better if you get to know the person first."

She tried to picture jumping into a relationship with Quinn straight away; it just seemed absurd. They were getting along well now, and they were starting to find things out about each other, but they still hadn't even known each other for a month yet. Besides, Quinn was so out of her league and was admired by all the girls in the school – why would he want to get into anything serious at his age? Even if he did, Eve wouldn't go for it. She had a small crush on him yeah, but she felt far too awkward around him to do anything about that.

"No, no," Gracie shook her head. Thankfully she didn't mind talking about this by the looks of it. "We were actually already dating when we found out, and we were already in love. So being soulfinders just strengthened the connection between us. It was the same with all my family actually, none of them started dating straight away. Well, apart from my uncle Will and aunt Persephone, but they were in a crazy situation in the first place. Why do you ask?"

Eve fell silent, biting her bottom lip nervously. She wanted to tell someone about her and Quinn, but at the same time she didn't want anyone to know. She chose her words carefully before answering. "I was just asking because there are quite a few soulfinder couples at the school, and I've always wondered what I would do when I met my soulfinder."

"Don't worry about it. When you do meet him, you'll go at your own pace. Every couple is different. Killian lives with me and my family when we're back in America, and there are still things that I'm learning about him each day. When you meet your soulfinder, you'll know when you should get together; it'll just feel right for the two of you."

Eve thought that Gracie sounded pretty mature for her age. Then again, she'd heard the stories of what went down in the last school year and knew that she too would probably grow up quickly after going through something like that.

"Yeah I guess," she answered, smiling a little. "Thanks, Gracie."

"That's alright. We're friends, we're supposed to reassure each other about things and have girly chats about boys," she chuckled. Eve was pretty jealous of how confident Gracie was and how easy she found it to interact with people. "Listen, the others are all down in the cafeteria eating tea and they said there's still some food left. I'll get the nurse to come in so she can let you go, then we'll go eat. I'm sure you're starving, right?"

Eve nodded. As Gracie left the room, Eve was rather proud of herself for managing to have that conversation. It didn't give her any idea on what to do about Quinn, but it eased the pressure she felt in dating him straight away just because they were soulfinders. The conversation had helped her, as well as making her realise that the girls in her group weren't that bad after all and if she could keep feigning confidence, her shyness may just fade away completely over time. She wasn't just following Leigh around anymore. The group were her friends and knowing that made her feel warm inside and made her just a little less homesick.

* * *

When Eve and Gracie joined the others in the cafeteria at their usual corner table, there were only two seats left: one next to Killian, and one next to Quinn. Obviously Gracie went straight towards Killian, brushing a hand along the back of his neck as she sat down and shifted her chair right up against his.

Eve's palms were sweating as she pulled out the chair next to Quinn and sat down, placing her chicken salad and bottle of water on the table. Her mouth was suddenly dry so she took a big gulp of the water, watching Quinn out of the corner of her eye.

His body had gone stiff the moment she sat down next to him and his eyes were trained across the table as he listened intently to something Flash was saying. _It must be something pretty interesting for him to completely ignore me_ , Eve thought to herself bitterly. Despite not wanting a relationship with Quinn – at least not yet – she really did want to talk things through with him. They were soulfinders, for God's sake. She'd always been told about how special and amazing that bond was, had totally believed that she would marry her soulfinder and spend the rest of her life with him. She didn't see why that couldn't happen with Quinn in the future. She just didn't want that right now.

As she started to eat her salad, she half-listened to the various bouts of chatter going on around her. Mostly though she was watching Quinn, watching how he'd turned in his seat so that his back was to her. He was totally ignoring her, which admittedly hurt her feelings. Was he that angry they were soulfinders that he was now going to pretend she didn't exist? Perhaps he'd had something else in mind when he thought of the love of his life. Perhaps he thought that Eve wasn't good enough for him due to them both coming from different backgrounds – his family being rich, hers struggling their way through life because her mum didn't have her financial priorities straight.

A voice in the back of her mind suggested that maybe Quinn didn't even realise what he was doing. He might really just be interested in Flash's story and once it was done he'd turn and talk to her then. Quinn wasn't a bad person and he'd always shown Eve that he liked her and wanted them to be friends, so why would he have a sudden change of heart just because they were soulfinders? If anything, the discovery should make him feel even closer to her.

Deciding to test if it was the former or the latter, she reached out to his mind. Their minds linked so easily and she was glad that he hadn't yet mastered the ability of having constant mental shields in place. _"Truth. I'm your soulfinder, aren't I?"_ She'd meant for it to come out as a teasing way, just like the game had been for them before. She thought he'd turn to her, laugh, and then ask her a question in return to keep the game going.

Instead, she saw his chest heave with a silent sigh and his head dropped forward. He looked at the ground for a long moment, his body as still as a statue. Finally his voice whispered into her mind: _"yes."_ Without looking at her or anybody else, he grabbed his bag and stood up, the chair screeching against the floor.

He left the cafeteria without looking back.

Eve wanted to run after him but she was too distraught to. He didn't want her. She didn't understand – what had she done wrong? Why wouldn't he at least tell her that he didn't want anything to happen between them despite the bond they shared? Was their friendship over before it had barely even begun?

She looked down at her food, appetite now gone. God… What a day.

* * *

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Quinn goes on his double date.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's note: So I was going to make this chapter an extra-long one but I thought the second half of this chapter I had planned needed its own chapter so I could go into it more. Plus, this is a pretty intense chapter as it is and I didn't want to make it any worse, haha.

*Warning- There's quite a fair bit of bad language in this.

* * *

 **Saturday 26** **th** **September 2020**

Eve still wasn't quite sure how she had ended up spending Saturday evening with her sister. She'd been comfortable in her bed reading when there had been a knock on the door. Guessing that it was someone for Leigh, she debated not answering it so she didn't have to talk to a stranger, but the knock came again.

Raven had been stood there when she opened the door. "You wanna go out for something to eat? Everyone else is off doing something else and I'm bored."

Eve had said yes of course, always finding it hard to say no to people in case it caused a confrontation. Still though, how had the day ended with her spending time alone with Raven for the first time in what felt like months? Why had Raven even bothered? Surely she would have much preferred to be alone than with Eve after everything that had gone on between them. It truly just didn't make any sense whatsoever to her.

After taking the bus into the closest town centre, Raven led Eve to a popular restaurant with a buffet. Once they were sat down with a plate of food in front of each of them, Eve felt the need to finally say something considering they'd barely spoken on the way here.

"So, everyone else is busy, huh? Is that the real reason you asked me to come out?" She came out with the words straight away. If it was anyone else she wouldn't have dared to speak so brazenly, but this was her sister and she'd never been shy when it was just the two of them.

"Gracie and Killian are in London for the weekend, visiting one of Killian's sisters," Raven explained, shrugging her shoulders. "I think Allie and Fernando went to some club. I'm not sure about the others, but no one had anything planned so I'm presuming they were busy." When Eve simply stared at Raven, she sighed. "Okay, okay. Oceana phoned me and kind of ordered me to be nice to you. So this is me being nice. And nosey."

"Nosey?"

"I want to know what is going on with you and Quinn. It seemed like the two of you were getting along brilliantly, but this past week there's been tension. I don't constantly watch you together and even I've realised that. You were always there when I had boy problems so this is me finally returning the favour and doing what Osh tells me to because I know she puts £40 in our shared bank account each month and I rely on that for new clothes. So, tell me about you and Quinn."

It'd been a while since the twins had had girly chats about boys, and even then it had always been about Raven's love life. Eve felt almost giddy to finally have something like that to tell Raven, but part of her was hesitant to tell anybody the truth about her and Quinn. But then again, she knew that Raven being nice to her would most likely not last very long and she wanted to make the most of it whilst she still could.

So she told her everything. How her and Quinn realised they were soulfinders, how he'd been ignoring her all week because of it. In the classes they sat next to each other and in the cafeteria, he barely even looked at her and the one time she'd tried to start a conversation, he'd literally stood up and walked away.

"I just feel so rejected," she added, tears springing to her eyes. She could feel the warmth of her cheeks flushing. "I don't understand why he's being this way. Am I not good enough for him, is that it? Maybe he's right to push me away, maybe he does deserve better than me."

Raven lifted a hand and clutched at her short hair as if she wanted to pull it out. She was giving Eve an incredulous look. "I am so ashamed of you right now, I honestly am."

"What?" Eve asked, bottom lip trembling; she was so close to bursting into loud sobs. "Why would you say that?"

"Because you're being ridiculous!" She threw her hands in the air before putting them flat on the table and leaning forward towards her sister. "How dare you say that about yourself? Any guy, even fricking Quinn Chamberlain, would be goddamn lucky to have you as their soulfinder and if he can't see that, then he is in the wrong here. Not you. Him. Eve, I wish you would just have some bloody self-respect, seriously. Stop acting like a weak little girl wondering why the hell the boy doesn't like you, and start feeling angry that he won't accept you. Don't whine over him. Soulfinder or not, you deserve so much better if he's going to treat you like that. So stop being pathetic and feeling sorry for yourself."

Eve sat up straight in her seat, eyes wide. Raven's outburst had surprised the hell out of her. Only she could say something that was both insulting and kind at the same time. The thing was, she knew that Raven was right – why should she mope around over Quinn when he clearly didn't want her? She should just move on with her life. It was hard though, feeling the tug of that soulfinder bond every second of every day, a painful reminder that she wasn't with him.

"Stop crying."

"I'm not crying," Eve replied, with tears running down her face and her voice wobbling. Raven raised her eyebrows and said nothing. "Okay, I'm crying. It's just that you're being so nice to me and I miss you."

Raven's harsh expression softened slightly and she gave a little smile. "I miss you too. How could I not when we used to do everything together? But I can't forgive you for what happened, Eve. Chances are, Lavender's dead and it's your fault. She was our sister Eve, how could you let that happen to her? If you'd just told somebody what was going on, we wouldn't have lost her." She paused a moment. "Look, I want things to go back to how they used to be between us, but that's impossible without her here. Things are never going to be the same again."

She was right, of course. It was Eve's fault, and they could never return to the past. It wounded her so much though, having her twin so near yet not being best friends with her anymore. "Can we at least try? Not to be how we used to be, but to try and have some kind of friendship. I know it hurts you as much as it does me, us not being close anymore."

"I think I'd like that," Raven smiled at her, the first proper and genuine smile she'd given Eve in so long. "We have to start somewhere, right? We can't continue hating each other like this, it's not healthy. We can be friends."

It was a promising start to their future, Eve thought to herself, even if she did know deep down that it wasn't set in stone. Raven would always resent her for what happened to Lavender and there was no getting past that. At least she'd be able to be around her sister without receiving hateful glares though. That was something.

They continued eating and Eve found herself actually enjoying the evening. They talked about everything meaningless, from school gossip to celebrities to TV shows. They were laughing carefree, marvelling in the moment of each other's company and both seemed reluctant to go back to the academy so soon.

They stood and joined the line at the help-yourself buffet for seconds, Eve watching the people ahead of them fill their plates as Raven looked around at the rest of the restaurant. She was people-watching, as she often did – from a young age, she'd liked to make up secret lives of strangers, making it a game that she forced Eve and Lavender to play too. A game with no rules that Raven always declared herself the winner of.

Suddenly, Eve sensed Raven tensing beside her before she declared under her breath, "oh I do not believe this. The nerve! The absolute nerve of the boy!"

"What?" Eve wondered, turning around to see what had got Raven so obviously pissed off. She froze as her mind registered what it was she was seeing.

At the opposite side of the restaurant to their table were booths, a more romantic setting with their dark tables and leather seats, with a spotlight shining down on each separate booth. In one of those booths, she spotted a familiar blonde: Flash. Beside him was a red-haired girl, an arm around his shoulders as she leaned against him. It was the people across from them that really got Eve's attention however.

Quinn was relaxed back in the seat, looking totally at ease. He was wearing a smart red shirt, his hair gelled back into a neat style. A blonde girl, whom Eve recognised as being Polly Brooks, was beside him. Polly was whispering something into Quinn's ear, and he was smiling at whatever it was that was being said.

"He's… On a date," Eve murmured, feeling the need to say this out loud to show herself that it was real and she wasn't making this up. She knew her and Quinn weren't together but for him to go on a date when they knew that they were soulfinders… Well, it was kind of like cheating, in a way. He could have at least had the decency to tell her that he wanted to see other people. She started to feel tears coming on, but thought of Raven's words and made sure she didn't cry again over him – she wouldn't get upset this time. No, this time she would get angry.

Before she say or do anything, Raven had slammed her plate down on a nearby empty table and was storming across the restaurant towards the foursome. "Oh no," Eve quickly said, putting her own plate down and rushing after her sister.

She saw Raven reach the others, saw the shock on Quinn's face as Raven grabbed his shirt and pulled him out of the booth. As soon as he was on his feet, she shoved him away from her roughly. Eve reached them just as Raven started shouting.

"Who the _fuck_ do you think are? What, you think just because girls find you irresistible and you're rich that you can mess around with girls' hearts and do whatever the fuck you want? Ugh, you are such a bastard!"

"Woah," Quinn held his hands up in a defensive posture. His eyes flickered over to Eve and she saw a nervous, panicked look in them. He gulped and looked back at Raven. "Calm down, Raven. What's going on?"

"WHAT'S GOING ON?! Are you stupid as well as a fuckboy? I know about you and Eve, she told me everything! I thought it was bad enough that you were too much of a pussy to talk to her about the fact you're soulfinders-" She cut off the speech, peering around Quinn to look at a startled Polly, still sitting down. "Did dear old Quinn not tell you? Eve's his soulfinder, so your chance of getting anything out of him are very slim, love." She looked back at Quinn. "Now back to you. She at least deserved an explanation for why you wouldn't talk to her. For you to just go on a date with some bitch is so fucking low, Quinn. I warned you that if you hurt her, I would kill you."

Eve had heard enough. People in the restaurant were staring to stare, the attention making her blush and making her skin itch. She was angry at Quinn too, but she wasn't about to start an argument, especially not in such a public place. She got a tight grip on Raven's arm and tried to pull her away. "Please," she begged, trying to keep her emotions in check. "He's not worth it. Please Raven, stop."

Raven ignored her, not even glancing away from Quinn as she glared at him. The last time Eve had seen her look at someone like that, with that much hate in her eyes, had been when they found out what happened to Lavender. The look had been directed at Eve, so she knew that Quinn must be pretty freaked out right now. When Raven got this furious with someone, she looked capable of killing them.

"I feel so sorry for Eve, having to have you as a soulfinder," Raven spat. "She deserves _way_ better. Who the fuck gave you the right to treat her like this? To act like she doesn't exist? And why the hell do you think she isn't good enough for you, hmm? Does your rich daddy tell you to pick a rich piece of arm candy? Do you not like Eve because of our background, is that it?"

"I don't even know anything about Eve's background!" Quinn exclaimed. He motioned for Flash to sit back down when his friend stood up, as if telling him that he could handle this himself. "And no, I don't think she isn't good enough for me. Raven, I _like_ Eve. You don't understand-"

"Oh my god!" Eve shouted, louder than she ever would have dared to in a public place before. She shouted because Raven had let out a scream of frustration and punched Quinn in the face.

She. Had. Punched. Him.

As Raven reeled back, Flash jumped to his feet and threw out a hand to keep Raven away from Quinn. Quinn was holding a hand to his cheek, looking flabbergasted at what had just happened.

Raven, breathing heavily, spoke in a normal tone now. "You're the one that doesn't understand. We have been through enough shit in our lives and we do not need you adding to that pile. You better stay the hell away from Eve from now on, or I'll do more than just punch you."

A nervous-looking waiter sidled up to them, facing Raven. "Excuse me, ma'am. I'm afraid I must ask you to leave, you're making our other customers very uncomfortable and-"

"Fine, whatever. I'm leaving," she interrupted him, spinning around and striding back over to their table.

"Eve." She looked away from Raven's retreating figure and at Quinn, who had a pleading expression on his face. "Please let me explain. I never wanted to hurt you."

She met his eyes and shook her head once. She felt like she was looking at a total stranger, not the young man she had been recently getting to know and had grown to admire. "That doesn't make any of this better though, does it?"

She saw Eve heading towards the exit, both of their bags slung over her shoulder, and started to follow. She forced herself not to look back at Quinn, but she could just _feel_ his eyes watching her as she left.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Eve overhears something surprising, and Raven has suspicions about Polly.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: Updates for this story and my other story, Force of Nature, may become pretty irregular from now on. I won't promise you a chapter a week because I don't know if I'll be able to do that, but I promise that I will try to update as often as I can. This is because I'm moving into university halls on Saturday (the 19th), and will be starting classes soon after - I don't know how much free time I'll have to write while I'm at uni, but I'll try my hardest. I am not giving up on the stories and I don't want to leave you without a new chapter for too long. I will try to update at least one of my stories each week, but like I said, no promises.

Right, now that's out of the way, here's the chapter! I hope you like it, please let me know what you think.

* * *

 **Saturday 26** **th** **September 2020**

The night was still and quiet, not even the chirping of birds could be heard. On a fifth floor balcony at the girls' dormitories, Raven Fox was sat on the floor in a purple pyjama jumpsuit, with a pink knitted blanket wrapped around herself for protection against the chilly air.

Her three roommates were asleep inside, but Raven was still wide awake. She didn't feel tired at all, and at first it had been because of the adrenaline still pumping through her veins after the incident at the restaurant this evening, but now it was mainly because she couldn't stop thinking. Couldn't stop thinking about _everything_. She wished that she could turn her mind off for just one night at least so that she could have a break from this inner turmoil she was feeling.

She looked up at the dark sky and watched the stars twinkling for a few moments as if one were going to swoop down and encase her in its shine to make her feel better. She only looked away when she heard her name being whispered in a Texas accent.

Startled, she looked to her left and saw the boy from the office, Micah, hovering in the air beside the balcony. He grinned when he saw her looking and floated over the steel railing, feet touching the floor of the balcony without making a sound. He sat down next to her, wrapping his arms around his knees.

"You can fly," she stated the obvious.

"Yup. Bit of a shock for my parents when they found out what my power was. They told me that I was six months old and we were in the garden. Mom turned her back on me for five seconds and when she looked back, I was gone. They found me later on the roof of the barn, after about five hours of panicking," he chuckled.

Raven didn't laugh with him, even though she did find that situation rather funny indeed. Instead she said, "you know, it's past curfew. You should be in bed by now, not in the girls' dorms."

"I'm technically not in the girls' dorms, Raven Fox. No one's going to know that I broke the rules, so what's the problem? I saw you through my window, sat here all on your own, and thought I'd come and say hello."

Raven studied his face for a moment, spotting the look of amusement mixed with concern in his big dark eyes. She rolled her eyes and groaned aloud. "You heard about me going psycho on Quinn, didn't you?"

Micah nodded his head. "I did. Although I don't know the juicy details. Everyone's talking about how you punched him and acted all crazy, but no-one knows for sure what went down. The most popular rumour is that Quinn slept with your sister then just dumped her straight away and went out with another girl instead. I'd ask if it was true, but I've seen Eve around school and she barely even talks to people, let alone have sex with them. So if you want to talk, I'm all ears and very curious."

She smiled at Micah's light tone, relieved that he didn't think the worst of Eve like everyone else apparently did. She really did want to talk about it, and she felt the need to open up to Micah which was definitely odd because Raven hardly ever opened up to anyone. Especially when she barely knew them.

"You have to swear not to tell anyone, because it's up to them whether or not they want people to know, okay?" When he promised, she continued. "Quinn and Eve are soulfinders, but ever since they found out he's been ignoring her and so when we saw him on a date with another girl, I got pretty angry. He made Eve feel so bad about herself, and then he did that which probably just made her feel worse. I've always protected Eve – she's the youngest, so I've always seen her as my responsibility. I just lost control with Quinn and lashed out at him."

Micah raised his eyebrows and seemed taken aback by the truth. "Huh. Well, I think you were pretty justified to react like that. I have a younger sister and I would murder any guy that broke her heart. I just can't believe Quinn would do that. Not because I think he's a decent guy or anything, I don't even know him. I can't believe it because… She's his soulfinder. That is the most important thing that could ever happen to a savant. I know that if I ever find my soulfinder I'd never want to let her out of my sight, and the thought of going out with another girl would physically hurt me. What the hell is wrong with him?"

It took Raven a moment to respond because her heart had started beating faster when Micah started talking about his own soulfinder, making it difficult for her to breathe. S _tupid,_ she chastised herself for reacting that way. _Don't be one of those girls who gets butterflies over a guy and starts blushing. Micah's not even that cute… Ok, so maybe he is a little, but don't start swooning over him, girl!_

"My thoughts exactly," she finally said, looking away from him. "At least you don't agree with all those that think I'm a psycho for hitting Quinn."

"What I don't get though, is that I thought you hated your sister. It always looks that way, anyway."

Wow, he had to ruin the moment, didn't he? She knew that Micah was just being friendly and meant nothing by it, but this was turning the conversation in a whole different direction, one that she didn't like. Yet she found herself replying again.

"I don't hate Eve. Hate is a strong word. I just… Don't really like her at the moment. Actually, it's not even that; I do like her. I think she's sweet and caring, and I love her. It's just that some pretty bad things went down in our family before we came here and it was her fault, and I don't know if I can bring myself to forgive her for that just yet. I guess you could say that it's complicated.

"She's not my favourite person right now but I still want the best for her. She is such a good person, way better than I am, and she doesn't deserve to be treated badly. She deserves to be happy."

Micah was quiet for a long moment, so long that Raven looked back at him and expected him to have flown away already. He was still there though and he was looking at her with an expression she didn't understand, one that seemed thoughtful and pitying at the same time. "You deserve that too, Raven," he finally answered her, speaking softly. He reached out and rested a hand on top of one of hers, his dark skin warm and his touch delicate. "You deserve to be happy as well, and I don't see that in you right now. It's like you've closed yourself off from the world, and you're just focusing your attention on protecting Eve, but you know what? I think Eve can take care of herself and you need to let her spread her wings. You need to focus on yourself instead."

"I can't," she shook her head, swallowing past a lump in her throat. "You don't know what's gone on, Micah. She needs me, I can't abandon her."

He gave her hand a squeeze. "Fine. That doesn't mean I can't focus on you though."

Her eyebrows furrowed together as she frowned. "What does that mean?"

Micah smiled and it was beautiful. "It means that I like you and I want to spend more time with you. I'm going to make sure you make time for yourself and I'm going to get through those walls you have up and I'm going to make you happy. I'd like to think that after meeting twice now, we're friends," he chuckled. "And friends help each other, which is exactly what I'm going to do."

His words were terribly corny, like something from a romance novel but she didn't comment on that. He seemed to like his speeches. "That's awfully confident coming from someone who doesn't know me too well."

"I'm a confident guy," he shrugged.

Raven smiled at him before movement below them caught her eye. Leaning forward to peer through the railing of the balcony, Raven saw Polly Brooks walking across the grass separating the dorms. She was coming from the directions of the teachers' dorms – why would she have been over there? – and she wasn't alone. There was a smaller girl with her whom Polly seemed to be comforting. The smaller girl was shaking with tears by the looks of it, and was leaning into Polly for support.

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Who's that with Polly?" She asked Micah, who was also peering down below.

"No idea, but they need to be more discrete if they're going to break curfew. Anybody could see them just walking out in the open like that." He stood up as she sat back, and smiled down at her. "I'll see you soon, Raven Fox. My mission of 'Free Raven' will commence soon," he said far too dramatically before climbing over the edge of the balcony and jumping.

Raven didn't bother looking over to see if he was okay, and a second later she saw a dark figure flying towards the top floor of the boys dormitories. Unexpectedly to her, she was thinking about how much she wished Micah had stayed to talk for just a little while longer.

* * *

Leigh was fast asleep on her side of the room and Eve was unbelievably envious of her. How was she able to fall asleep so quickly every single night? For Eve, no matter how tired she was, it took her at least an hour to actually go to sleep. She'd just be laying there in her bed, with the whole day replaying in her mind – awkward social interactions, what she should or shouldn't have said, gossip she'd overheard other people talking about.

Tonight, she was kept awake by the events that had occurred in the restaurant that evening. She felt so embarrassed that Raven had drawn so much attention to them all, that she'd gone as far as to hit Quinn, whilst at the same time being touched that Raven would do that for her. She was also still in disbelief that Raven had agreed to being friends and working towards not hating each other as much. She was _this_ close to having her sister back again and she'd never been happier.

That happiness was kind of diminished because of Quinn, however. She wasn't heartbroken that he'd gone on a date with Polly – she wasn't in love with him or anything (this knowledge made her glad that she hadn't let herself get too close to him) so she didn't feel like sobbing her eyes out over him. But she was so disappointed in him, having thought that they were friends now and that he'd at least talk to her about the soulfinder thing. She wanted to go over to his room right now and shout at him until her throat was raw because Raven was right: Eve shouldn't feel sorry for herself right now, she should get angry that he thought he was too good for her. She should scream at him, humiliate him in front of their friends, and let him know just exactly how she was feeling.

For obvious reasons, she knew that she would never actually do this. Just the thought of shouting at him and starting an argument made her feel nauseous.

Eve rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly and repeating _go to sleep_ over and over in her mind. It didn't work, and ten minutes later she let out a frustrated sigh and flipped back the duvet, heaving herself out of the bed. Perhaps going downstairs for a glass of water would tire her out a bit more and she'd manage to get some sleep tonight.

She headed downstairs as quietly as she could, wincing whenever the odd stair creaked beneath her. There wasn't technically a rule about not going into the kitchen at night, but any teachers or security guards on duty tended to frown upon it and she didn't quite fancy having to explain herself if she got caught.

Finally, she reached the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, but paused suddenly when she heard voices coming from the living room. She peered her head around the slightly ajar door and was taken aback to see Flash sat on one of the sofas. A redhead was sat next to him, the one that he'd been on a date with, and she had her hand on his back as he leaned forward, elbows perched on his knees.

Eve pulled back before either of them saw her, not quite sure what to do. She actually did want a drink now so she didn't want to go back upstairs, but she also didn't like the idea of intruding on their private moment. So, although Eve would usually never eavesdrop, that's exactly what she ended up doing.

"It's okay, you know," the girl was saying, voice loud enough to carry across the room to Eve. "Flash, it's okay. I'm not unconfident enough to think that you can't get it up because I'm not hot enough." _Okaaaay, this is exactly the kind of conversation I should not be listening to,_ Eve thought to herself.

"No, exactly," Flash replied, sounding tortured. "You're beautiful, Alison. I wouldn't have asked you out if I didn't think that… I've just never done this before."

"Really?" Alison sounded as surprised as Eve was. "I wouldn't have thought that, what with all the girls you're always flirting with. Is this one of those cases where you flirt so much to hide the fact you're unexperienced?"

"No. Yes. I mean, kind of. God, I hate this!"

Alison paused for a moment and Eve wondered if she was whispering until she heard her voice clearly. "Flash, there's something else, isn't there? Are you in love with someone else? You can tell me, your secret will be safe with me. I'm not the bitch that everyone thinks I am, honestly. What is it?"

Another pause, longer this time, until Flash finally answered in a voice that sounded totally unfamiliar. He was always so certain and cocky, just like Quinn, but in this moment he sounded vulnerable, making Eve feel like she wanted to go in there and give him a big hug. "I guess I'm just… Confused," Flash admitted. "About my sexuality. I thought I was into girls, but the past couple of years I've been noticing things about guys, and there's this one guy that I feel absolutely obsessed with that I know I can't have. Yet I'm still attracted to you too, or at least I can see what's attractive about you. I just don't know who I am right now." His next words sounded desperate as he pleaded. "Please, you can't tell anyone. I'm not ready for people to know yet or have their own speculations, please promise me…"

Eve didn't stick around to hear anymore. Water now forgotten, she started to creep back upstairs. She knew that with this on top of the whole Raven/Quinn thing, it would be a restless night tonight. She just couldn't believe this! Flash had never struck her as being gay – she knew that not everyone had the stereotypical 'look' to them, but she'd never expected it from the way he talked about girls.

She felt sorry for him, realising that Alison was most likely the first person he'd talked to about this, and that he'd probably been keeping this in for so long now. Had he told Quinn? They were best friends by now, so maybe. Either way, Eve wasn't going to get involved. It wasn't her secret to tell, it wasn't any of her business, and it was something she shouldn't have even heard in the first place.

She hoped that Alison was being sincere in saying that she wouldn't tell anyone, and she hoped that it would be easier on Flash now that he had somebody to confide in.

* * *

 **Sunday 27** **th** **September 2020**

So far in the school year, Raven had attended two assemblies, both of which had been strictly for sixth formers. Today was the first day so far that there'd been a full school assembly, and the students were all crammed into the biggest hall the school had, which wasn't big enough to hold chairs for all of them. In the end, the sixth formers had ended up standing around the edges of the room along with the teachers.

As everyone started to settle down, Raven looked around her to see where her friends were. She was stood with Allie and Gracie and knew that Quinn was just a few people down the row from her, sporting a pretty dark bruise on his cheekbone. She had to admit that she felt some satisfaction for that. She couldn't see Eve anywhere, but did spot Micah standing straight across from her, already watching her. He grinned; she smirked.

When Mrs. Burn walked onto the stage, the chattering students finally quieted and gave her their attention. "Good afternoon, everyone," she welcomed them. "I wish I could tell you that this assembly was for a pleasant reason, but that is unfortunately not the case. I am going to go straight ahead and inform you of the bad news we have to deliver today.

"As you may already know, two students have been found dead by suicide recently and I am sad to tell you that this morning another student was discovered in the same condition. This is such tragic news to all of us at the academy, especially after the events of the last school year and those that we lost then. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Lilly Wainwright, Clarissa Caine, and Louise Gibson.

"We do not know why these young girls made the decision to end their lives, but we are going to do everything in our power to make sure this doesn't happen again. We want you all to feel that this is a safe environment and that you can trust us. Later today, three school therapists will be arriving, and we urge you to sign yourself up for a session with them. It isn't compulsory, but we want every single one of you to be able to discuss your grief over these losses, and anything else that may be troubling you.

"I would now like to ask you to give Lilly, Clarissa, and Louise a minute of silence each."

As the three minutes silence began, an image of a smiling Lilly, the girl found hanging from a tree, was projected onto the wall behind Mrs. Burn. After the first minute, there was a photograph of Clarissa, and then finally a photograph of Louise.

Raven's eyes widened and her body tensed as she looked at the petite, slim brunette in the photo. She was smiling there, but the last time Raven had seen her she'd been crying and sagging against Polly. She'd killed herself last night… After returning back to her dorm after seeing Polly.

She looked over and met Micah's eyes. He looked as horrified as she did and she instinctively knew that he was thinking along the same lines as she was.

Why had Louise killed herself? What had made her so upset last night that she would do that to herself? Had Polly told the teachers why she had been comforting Louise, why they had been in the teachers' dormitories? And the question that was most troubling of all: did Polly somehow have a hand in Louise's death?

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Quinn faces Eve at last.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note: Sorry it's taken me a couple weeks to upload. Like I said before, I've started uni now so finding time to write isn't always easy.

If you'd like to know when a chapter will be posted, check my profile regularly. I'm going to write updates about when I've started writing a new chapter. You can always expect that chapter to be posted within a few days.

Hope you like the chapter, please review x

* * *

 **Monday 28** **th** **September 2020**

Eve sat in her seat for her Criminology lesson, one of only a few students that had arrived to class early. She was doodling on a page of her notebook, point blank refusing to watch the classroom door as others started to arrive. Her long hair was down and hanging to hide her face, and she was clutching her pen tightly to try and stop the shaking of her hands.

She had stayed in her room all day Sunday, claiming to feel sick so that she could miss the assembly. In the morning classes she shared with Quinn, Biology and English Literature, they'd sat at opposite sides of the classroom, and in their Power Construction lesson, they had again been separated into two different groups. Quinn had been absent from the canteen at lunch, not even Flash knowing where he was. So overall, Eve's day had been very stressful indeed for although she was pleased not to have had to face Quinn all day, the build-up towards the last lesson of the day had been awful. She'd been dreading this class, simply for the reason that she knew she had no choice but to sit next to Quinn.

Eve's head shot up when the teacher, Mrs. Edwards, strolled into the room and started the lesson. She hadn't realised that quite so many people had to come into the classroom and it seemed like everyone was here… Except Quinn.

Her breathing eased a little at noticing this and she relaxed the hold on her pen, focusing on the introduction to the class rather than doodling now. Yet at the same time, she was worried. Was something wrong with Quinn that had stopped him from coming to class? Was he hurt? Or was he simply skipping class so that he could avoid her? The latter was probable, she decided, seeing as he seemed to hate her for some reason or another.

The lesson today was about DNA evidence, a subject which interested Eve greatly. She always had loved science, and knew that if she didn't become a doctor then she would want to be a forensic scientist.

Ten minutes into the class, Mrs. Edwards was interrupted by the classroom door opening. Eve looked up, taking a quick intake of breath. Despite having lessons with him this morning, she hadn't looked at Quinn. Not once had she been able to. Yet now she was finally getting a good look at him.

His face was shockingly pale, the dark freckles covering his face a stark contrast. His hair was shiny as if it hadn't been washed for a couple of days, messy enough that it was obvious he hadn't bothered to brush it either. His right cheekbone was sporting a dark and ugly bruise that was making his eye slightly narrowed. His eyes… His eyes were what got to Eve the most. His green eyes, usually so lovely, were dull now and the whites of his eyes were bloodshot. Around his eyes the skin was red, making him look like he hadn't slept for weeks on end. He was still dressed stylishly, but not even that could make him look better.

"Sorry I'm late," he muttered to the teacher in a monotone voice. "I had a personal matter to deal with."

Mrs. Edwards, whom more often than not disgraced students when they turned up late to her lesson, looked flabbergasted. Like the rest of the silent room, she was clearly taken aback by the sight in front of her. "That's okay," she finally said, gesturing to the back of the room where Eve sat next to an empty chair. "Sit down, but please don't be late to my class again."

Quinn gave her a nod of acknowledgement before strolling to his seat. He didn't look at Eve once, not even as he sat down. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, seeing him slouch low on the chair, dropping a pad of paper and a pen onto the table but not bothering to ask what he had missed.

It took a moment for Mrs. Edwards to get the attention of the students back on her, but she eventually did. Eve took notes from the slideshow on the board, focusing on the words but also fully aware of the boy sat next to her.

When half an hour later they were giving an exercise to do in pairs, Quinn and Eve had no choice but to lean closer together and sort through the cards they had been given. They were working in silence and Eve couldn't stand it, in spite of the fact that talking to Quinn was the last thing she wanted to do. She knew he would just hurt her again and she was sick of it; she knew Raven was right that she shouldn't have to put up with this.

"You look like shit," she blurted out. It took her a second to realise what she had actually said and she felt her cheeks flushing in response. She looked sideways to see that Quinn was already looking at her, mouth in a flat line and his face just looking exhausted. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

He shook his head once and quietly admitted, "you're right though. I haven't slept since Saturday, I just can't stop thinking about what happened. Please let me explain."

She wanted to say yes. But she had to be tough and defend herself; she had to channel Raven's strength. "I don't want to hear what you have to say, Quinn. You know, fair enough that you don't want to date me or be my friend, or even want to acknowledge that we're soulfinders. You should get a choice when it comes to who you be with, I get that. But you didn't have to ignore me, did you? You didn't have to go out with another girl without even telling me first, did you? It's like you either purposely decided to hurt me, or you just didn't think about my feelings at all. You're only looking out for yourself."

"No, that's not true!" He protested desperately. He didn't even look surprised that Eve was speaking up instead of shying away from the matter, even though she was surprised at herself. "Just listen to me. Eve, I agreed to go on the date before I found out you were my soulfinder – and I only said yes because Flash wanted me to! I was going to cancel after I found out about you, but then I had a vision. It was of me cancelling the date so it was just Flash and Alison that went, and the two of them getting mugged on the way home. I didn't know if it would only happen if I didn't go, but I couldn't take that risk! At least if I was there, I could have helped in some way, you know?

"I didn't go there to be with Polly. I don't even like Polly, not really. So you see, I didn't go on the date just to upset you."

His words made sense, she guessed. Flash was Quinn's best friend, of course he wouldn't want him to get mugged and would try to stop that from happening even if there was a slim chance of that going down. She knew that if she had visions of the future, she would try and stop all the bad things from coming true as well.

So, she wanted to tell him that all was forgiven and they could start again. If this was a movie that was what would happen. But this was real life, and there were things that she still had to face, still had to confront him about.

"You could have told me this before the date, so I knew what to expect," she said, rage burning through her veins. Oh, she was so angry at him. "That's a ridiculous excuse and you know it. It also doesn't explain why you were ignoring me before the date even happened. Everything was fine between us until the whole soulfinder thing!" She snapped. Their voices were slightly lowered so as not to be overheard by their classmates, but she knew that he could still tell how furious she was.

Quinn's jaw twitched, and when he replied he sounded seriously pissed off. "You know what, you're right. It was the soulfinder news that fucked things up between us. I _don't_ want to be your soulfinder. It just complicates everything!"

"If that's how you really feel then fine, Quinn," she said, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. _I will not cry for him again_ , she told herself. _I will not let him see that._ "You really are the bastard that I thought you were when we first met. Stay away from me and leave me alone."

"Believe me, that's not a problem." He grabbed his pen and paper, stuffed them into his bag and stood up. "Have a good life, Eve."

Quinn left the classroom, totally ignoring Mrs. Edwards' demands for him to sit back down otherwise he'd get a detention.

Eve was frozen, already wondering how things had gotten so bad between them. One minute Quinn had been trying to explain himself and to get a second chance, and the next he was being utterly horrible towards her. What was his problem? Did he just enjoy messing with her mind and leaving her confused? She just wanted a simple answer: why didn't he want her? She knew that she sounded whiny thinking these thoughts, and honestly she would be fine if they never got together, but she felt like she deserved an explanation. It was driving her crazy trying to figure out what was in that mind of his.

* * *

Quinn had headed back to his dorm after walking out of Criminology, knowing that he would face the consequences in the morning. Frankly, he couldn't care less what punishment they gave him. He already felt like a dick, nothing could top that.

Why, oh why, had he said those things to Eve? He wondered as he collapsed onto his bed. He knew that he'd hurt her again, he'd seen the shine of unshed tears in her eyes, and had seen the slight furrow in her brows as she listened to him. He hated himself for saying those things to her.

He hadn't even meant them. He'd just been annoyed that his explanation wasn't good enough for her, even though he knew that she was right: he had still been ignoring her beforehand and could have at least told her about the date. All of this could have been avoided if he had dealt with this differently. It'd just been a shock to him – he hadn't even believed in soulfinders until he felt the warmth that her voice sent to him telepathically. To have that thrown upon you so soon after finding out you were a savant… Well, it was difficult and it'd taken him some time to wrap his head around it. Turned out he'd taken too long and was too late now. There was nothing he could to do to get on her good side now.

Maybe it was for the best. Maybe she was better off him without him. Hell, she _did_ deserve someone who treated her far better than he did so it was the right thing for him to do to back away now. He'd wanted to get close to prevent his vision, but he still had no idea who had it out for Eve, and maybe he could help her from a distance still. He knew more about her now, he might be able to figure it out.

As his eyesight started to go blurry, he realised the problem he had made. In his Power Construction lessons, he'd been working on summoning a vision at will just by thinking about it and what he wanted to know. He'd only done small things so far, like what his homework would be the next day for example, but his emotions had been the one factor that had helped him summon the visions. He was over-emotional now and thinking of the vision of Eve, and he could feel himself being pulled into the same vision he'd been having for months now, before he had even met Eve, yet again…

 _The girl was running through the woods, barefoot and in a shorts-and-tee pyjama combo. It was dark, leaving her with no sense of direction. Through the vision, Quinn could feel her emotions: she was scared. Unbelievably, absolutely terrified. For herself yes, but not just that. There was somebody else she was worried about too, a worry that made her want to turn around and run back in the direction she came from._

 _Her head whipped around, her long hair waving behind her in the wind. The bottom half of her hair was purple, almost glittering in the moonlight making its way through the trees. The girl was beautiful, but her face was marred by a bleeding cut down her cheek and tears filling her eyes._

 _Whatever was behind her, she couldn't take her eyes off it. This distraction cost her._

 _The girl screeched as she ran head-first into a tree, bouncing off it and falling backwards onto the floor. There was a laugh from behind her and the girl scrambled backwards, failing to rise to her feet, until her back hit the thick, damp trunk of another tree._

 _Then, a figure approached her, dressed in a black jumper with the hood pulled over their head. From the angle Quinn was seeing the vision, he couldn't see this second person's face._

 _"_ _Please," the girl on the floor moaned. "Please don't do this, don't let him make you do this. We can get past this, I promise I'll forgive you. I love you. Please."_

 _The mystery person raised an arm, revealing a gun. Without hesitation, they aimed it at the girl and pulled the trigger._

This was always where the vision ended. It always ended there, and Quinn always presumed that the mystery person, somebody the girl had obviously know, had killed her. Killed _Eve_. But this time, Quinn was shocked when the vision continued and he felt his whole body tense as the rest of the scene played out in his mind.

 _The girl screamed as a bang sounded, clutching her head and squeezing her eyes shut as if that would block out any pain the bullet gave her as it ripped through her body. However, after a tense moment of silence, one without any pain, she slowly raised her head and looked around her._

 _There was a bullet lodged in the tree, just centimetres away from the top of her head. She looked at the figure, blue eyes wide with confusion. "I thought you wanted to kill me. Why didn't you?"_

 _"_ _You think I would kill you with just a bullet to the head? Please. You deserve much more than that; I want to make you suffer." It was a girl's voice, one that sounded vicious._

 _The angle of the vision changed as the mystery figure pulled her hood back, revealing a face identical to the girl on the floor. The only difference was that her hair wasn't dyed and was cut short in a pixie style. Her lips turned up into a sneer as she glared at her doppelgänger._

 _"_ _I don't understand why you're doing this to me," the girl on the floor said, voice breaking into a sob. "Why do you hate me so much?!"_

 _"_ _You know why I hate you, Eve!" The other girl shouted, waving the gun around manically as she talked. "You had to go and ruin things between me and him, didn't you? Things were going fine, I was happy, and you messed that up. He doesn't want me anymore, do you have any idea what it feels like to lose the person that you love?"_

 _The girl with the purple hair, Eve, carefully stood up without taking her eyes off the other girl's face. She was pointedly not looking at the gun, Quinn noticed. "Yes," she answered quietly, sadness in her eyes. "Yes, I do know what that feels like. I lost Quinn and it has tortured me every single day. You shouldn't hate me, I was just looking out for you. I'm your sister; it's my job. You deserve better than a guy like him. I know exactly what he's like, just think about how he came into your life! Things have never, and will never, be perfect with him. You have to listen to me. Don't let your feelings for him make you do something you'll regret."_

 _The other girl paused as if contemplating what her sister had said, and a look of hope flashed over Eve's expression. It was a fleeting look though, gone when the other girl laughed and pointed the gun yet again at Eve's head._

 _"_ _You're stupid for thinking I would choose you over him. It's always been him and it always will be. He'll be thankful that I did this, maybe not straight away but eventually. And then he'll love me again and we'll live happily ever after like in the fairy tales."_

 _The girl smiled and pulled the trigger._

 _This time, the bullet didn't miss its target._

Quinn's body jerked as he came out of the vision, making him almost fall off the bed. Clammy sweat made his shirt stick to his chest, and his breathing was laboured.

He briefly lingered on thoughts of the moment he was mentioned in the vision, of Eve saying that she had loved him and lost him. He obviously was curious to know more about that part of the vision, but frankly that wasn't what he was focusing on the most.

The other girl in the vision had been Raven. _Raven_. Quinn knew that she and Eve didn't get along, but recently they'd seemed closer. As things stood now, he couldn't imagine Raven ever killing Eve. Hell, she defended her sister all the time, no matter what trouble it got her into. What was going to happen between now and the vision that would make her hate Eve enough to kill her? Raven being in love with a guy was part of it, for sure, so Quinn had to keep an eye on Raven's relationship status. He still felt that he was missing something vital though, something else that would get in between the twins in such a drastic measure, but _what?_

He didn't know the answers, but he did know what he was going to do about the vision. He was going to make an effort to get Eve to forgive him, become her friend again, and keep her the hell away from Raven as best as he could.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Quinn's in detention with a few familiar people.


	12. Chapter 12

**Saturday 3** **rd** **October 2020**

Detentions at the academy were the _worst_. Of course, there were the obvious reasons that detentions sucked like sitting in silence bored, and missing out on hanging out with friends. But at the academy all detentions were held on Saturdays, making them even more tedious and gruelling to attend.

As many students as possible were crammed into a classroom, with extras being put into other rooms. Quinn knew that he had been lucky when it came to this – there were only seven students in this room, meaning at least it didn't get as stuffy as the more packed rooms most likely did.

Each of the students were sat at a table to themselves with homework in front of them that they were supposed to be doing. Quinn's homework was for Biology and considering he hadn't spoken to Eve all week, it was obvious he wouldn't be getting help from her anytime soon. The only chance he had at completing this work was to go to the library and check out some books, but he wasn't even allowed to leave detention for that which he thought was ridiculous.

Quinn was sat at the back of the classroom, giving him a clear view of the others in the room: Gracie Benedict, Raven Fox, some guy from his year that he didn't know the name of, a year seven girl, and two year ten boys.

A teacher should have been in the room with them making sure they stayed quiet and did their work, but for the time being they were unsupervised. Simon, a Power Construction teacher, had been in here with them but had just been called out for an emergency with a kid from his form class.

Gracie, who was sat at the table in front of Quinn, turned around in her seat and flashed him a grin. "Heard you got into an argument with Eve and walked out of your class."

Quinn shrugged, feeling uncomfortable having to talk about this. "What are you in here for?"

"I got angry at my Savant History teacher and lost control of my power. She kind of went flying against the wall and ended up with a bad concussion." Quinn gave her a shocked look. Sure, people lost control of their powers all the time here, but he'd rarely heard tales of a student injuring a teacher in the process. "I know what you're thinking," Gracie continued, rolling her eyes. "But I wasn't really the one to blame. We're doing a unit on crime at the moment, and she was talking about a family that did a lot of bad things a while back – the Hawk family. My aunt was a Hawk before she married my uncle, and I said that, and I said that not all Hawks were bad. In fact, it was the ringleader Oliver that did everything, really. I met him, I saw him kill my- Never mind," she shook her head, flushing slightly. "Ms. Dales didn't listen to me though. She just kept saying that all the Hawks were evil, and my aunt doesn't deserve that so…" She trailed off, shrugging like it was no big deal.

Quinn replied, "That's awful Gracie, but you shouldn't have let yourself get that angry."

"Ugh, not you too! Believe me, I've already had a lecture from Killian. He's disappointed I lost control after all the work I've been doing to stop losing my cool. He says I'm lucky they only gave me a detention and didn't expel me, but whatever.

"So, you and Eve, huh? She seems pretty pissed at you. What's that about?"

"It's about Quinn being a dickhead," Raven answered from the other side of the classroom. "That's all you need to know."

Quinn glared over at Raven. He'd liked Raven, he really had. She'd been his friend and he'd wanted her to like him, hoped she might put in a good word for him to Eve. Even after she'd slapped him, he hadn't hated her. Now though, now that he'd seen the rest of that awful vision, he couldn't stand her. One day she would kill Eve if he didn't figure out how to stop her – she was vile.

He wanted to curse her, wanted to tell her to stay out of it. This was between him and Eve, Raven needed to let her sister deal with her problems on her own without Raven stood next to her telling her what to do. He was about to say all this too, until one of the year ten boys swore loudly.

They all looked towards the front of the classroom where the boy was gawping at, and saw the year seven girl stood in front of Simon's desk, facing them all. She looked so young, her clothes too big on her small body and her brunette hair tied in two plaits. She had a focused look on her face as she held a sharp knife against her throat.

Quinn's first thought was: where the hell did she get the knife from? His second thought was: what the hell was going on?

Gracie slowly stood up from her chair, holding her hands out as if the girl were an animal she was trying not to frighten. "Rosa, what are you doing? Put the knife down, sweetheart, you don't really want to hurt yourself, do you?" She spoke in a tentative, shaky voice. Quinn didn't blame her for being scared; he had frozen the moment he'd seen Rosa stood there like that.

"Yes, I do," Rosa replied in a sweet voice. She was smiling slightly and seemed totally calm and at ease. "She told me that this is what he wants me to do, and all I want is to make him happy."

Quinn's mind briefly went back to his vision, to Eve saying _"Don't let him make you do this"_ , and Raven saying, _"He'll be thankful that I did this"_. Were they talking about the same guy as Rosa was? It was a long shot, but possible.

Rosa's arm jerked, the knife slicing across her throat. Blood spilled down the front of her white t-shirt. Gracie screamed and suddenly all six of them were rushing towards Rosa in a panic.

Quinn couldn't believe this had happened. He couldn't wrap his head around _why_ it had happened. It was such a disturbing sight, all that blood over such a little girl and the thought that she had done that to herself.

Raven dropped to the ground next to Rosa, pulling the younger girl into her lap and squeezing a hand around her neck, covering the wound. At first Quinn thought that she was simply trying to stop the blood flow, but then the veins in Raven's hand turned black and it looked like they were moving. Her head was down, eyes closed; Rosa's eyes were wide open and she looked surprised at the turn of events more than anything else. Raven's body started shaking and she let out a low moan.

The guy Quinn's age knelt next to Raven, putting a hand on her back. "This is too hard for you, you're not strong enough. Stop," he said, sounding desperate.

"No," Raven replied through clenched teeth. "Back off, Micah."

Micah didn't move, but didn't say anything else either.

A couple minutes later, Raven's hand slipped away from Rosa's neck. Quinn's eyes widened when he noticed that the wound was completely gone, not even a scar remaining. Rosa's eyes were closed now, but her chest was still rising and falling so she just must have been unconscious. Quinn remembered that Raven's power was the ability to heal, and wasn't it just frightening to watch.

Raven was clearly exhausted. She slumped back against Micah's chest, breathing heavily, her body still shaking a little. Micah wrapped his arms around her and held her. It looked intimate and Quinn wondered how he'd never seen the two of them around school together before. Evidently they were close, but he'd never even heard Raven mention anyone called Micah. Was he the guy that drove Raven crazy enough to hurt Eve?

Raven's eyes fluttered closed and didn't open again. Quinn didn't hope she'd die or anything like that, but he was sort of glad that she was in pain and he hoped she suffered. It was some kind of karma for what she was going to do to Eve in the future.

The classroom door creaked open then and Simon walked back in. He stopped after two steps, looking flabbergasted at the sight in front of him. All he said was, "what happened?!"

* * *

The library was the most perfect place in the school, in Eve's opinion. It was full of books for starters, the librarian was lovely, there were plenty of secluded areas you could hide yourself away in, and it was almost silent it was that quiet. It was her favourite place to go in her spare time.

That evening, she was looking for a corner to curl up in with her new book, preferring to read here rather than in her bedroom where Leigh could break the silence and disturb her. There was a spot on the second level that she seemed to always go to, so that was where she was headed. She turned the corner and stopped, annoyed to see that someone else was already sat at the two-seater sofa.

It took her a moment to realise that it was Quinn sat there. He had a notebook on his lap, and a textbook open beside him, but he wasn't doing any work. He was… Crying. Quinn was crying. Tears soaked his cheeks and he was sniffling and wiping his eyes whilst trying to read something from the textbook.

 _Just turn around and walk away,_ a voice in the back of Eve's mind said. _He hasn't seen you yet, so he'll never know. You know that you never know what to do when someone cries in front of you. Besides, why should you stick around after the way he's treated you?_

She hesitated. The voice was right, of course. But the nice side of her was warring with it, telling it that it would be impolite to just walk away. Maybe Quinn would prefer to be left alone though? What guy came to the library, hid himself away, and wanted people to find him crying? And the voice was right, she never knew what to do when someone cried in front of her. When she lived at home and one of her siblings were crying, she'd often just walk out of the room because she felt that awkward about not knowing what to do or say. She really should just walk away now and forget that she ever saw Quinn here.

Just her luck though, Quinn looked up at that moment and saw her there. His eyes were red and puffy and when he recognised her his cheeks blushed (that was odd considering it was always her doing the blushing when they were together), making him look slightly embarrassed.

Well, it was too late to walk away now.

As she walked towards him, Quinn moved the textbook so that she could sit next to him comfortably. Eve spent longer than necessary taking her bag and coat off and placing them neatly on the ground in front of her just to drag this out, before she finally started a conversation.

"So… You're crying." _Yeah, well done pointing out the obvious, you idiot._

Quinn forced a smile. "Ha. Yeah. I am."

"Why?" This felt like the only way to answer him and she didn't even sound sympathetic at all. He probably thought she was a bitch or something.

Quinn met her eyes and shook his head once. "Everything's just really getting to me. My visions are driving me crazy, I fucked up my friendship with you and said things that I didn't even mean, I saw a girl try to kill herself this morning, and now this." He gestured towards the books he had. "Biology homework without your help? It's impossible. Totally turning me into a stress-head."

"That's enough to make you cry?" She raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised. He always seemed much tougher than that.

"I'm an emotional guy, Evie," he said, finally giving her a real smile. His tears had stopped by now. "I just don't let people see that."

"You sound like a cliché guy from the kinds of books I read," she smirked. She realised now that she was trying to make him laugh, to get him to stop crying – not just because him crying made her feel awkward, but because she didn't like the sight of him teary eyed. It made her sad. "Let me guess, you're very misunderstood and wish people didn't treat you like a mystery?"

"Honestly, I'd like that. Here, at this school, nobody's a mystery. Everyone's business is well known."

"That's true," she acknowledged. "Just like I know about Rosa Benitez. Raven's fine now, tucked up in bed fast asleep. She's not really strong at healing yet, she never had a good teacher for it until we came here, so it took a lot out of her saving Rosa's life. I heard they're calling a phycologist in to talk to Rosa. Raven thinks they should call the police too – she thinks all these suicides are linked. I mean, she might be right. It is a bit abnormal. I think the school just doesn't know how to act right now, you know?"

Quinn nodded, looking like he was deep in his own thoughts. "I'm just glad Rosa's okay. I can't even describe how appalling it was to see that."

"I can imagine," Eve said quietly, wondering if she would have ever been able to get over seeing someone try and commit suicide.

Just then, Quinn pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was vibrating and the screen said 'mum calling'; Quinn rejected the call and put his phone away again.

Eve frowned. "You know, you should have answered that. She was probably just wanting to check in with you, make sure you're okay. If I had a mother that cared enough to do that, I'd always pick up the phone."

Quinn returned the frown, looking at her intently. Eve felt her cheeks heating up as she got his full attention, still not used to having somebody that attractive look at her like that. Or anyone, for that matter. "What do you mean by that? Your mum doesn't phone you a lot?"

"Never," Eve admitted, gulping. "It's Raven that's she stayed in touch with."

"Why would she call Raven but not you?"

She wanted to open up to him. She wanted to forget about their fight and just tell him, just have a friend that knew about her family life. So she pushed away the voice that told her not to tell him, and she told him. She spoke clearly, unashamed, and looked into his eyes the whole time. She was brave for once, she thought.

"What you might not know yet is that there are mixed feelings all over the world about the seventh child in a savant family. The seventh child typically ends up the most powerful, or has the most powers out of all their siblings. Some people believe they're good luck to the family, some believe that they're a curse.

"My mum always wanted six children, because six was her lucky number. So she was devastated when in her sixth pregnancy she was told that she was having twins. I was born about ten minutes or so after Raven, and mum hated me from that very moment. She's a brilliant mum… Just not to me.

"Dad found his soulfinder and moved to America with her a month after we were born. The last we heard of him was two years ago when he told us that his wife had had a baby girl called Alice. Mum always says that it's my fault he left because I cursed the family.

"Then when Lavender, my sister… Something happened to her and mum blamed me. The whole family did, really. I blamed myself too. But my mum took it way too far, threatened to kick me out and everything. She only let me stay there because apparently my dad said that if she did that she wouldn't get any maintenance money for me. She'd never turn down money, my mum.

"All my life, she's always made sure that I knew I was the unwanted child and that I still am. I used to try everything to get her approval, but I've just given up and accepted it now."

Quinn looked disgusted. "That's atrocious! What kind of mother believes her own daughter is a curse and doesn't love her?! I'm so sorry Eve, it must have been horrible when you were younger."

"Yes and no. I'd get really upset about her, but my siblings always took care of me. My sister Oceana especially. It's not like I grew up without love." Eve shrugged and gave Quinn a smile. "I don't talk about this with anyone. I don't even really talk about it with my family, it's just a normal thing to us all now."

"I just can't imagine not ever being close with my parents. I'm glad you told me, I feel like I don't really know that much about you. I want to though." He sighed, reaching out and putting a hand on top of hers. "I am so sorry about what I've said, Eve. I didn't mean it. I do want to be your soulfinder, I'm so happy that I am, and it is definitely not easy to stay out of your life. Can we hang out tomorrow, do you think? Can I have another chance? Please?"

He looked so desperate as he pleaded for a friendship with her and the look reminded her of a cute puppy begging for forgiveness. She still felt angry about what he said, but she knew that from the moment she joined him on the sofa, she had forgiven him. He was clearly stressed out about a lot right now, and he did looking genuinely sorry about all he'd said and done. Honestly, Eve was sick and tired of being angry at him. It was tiring, if she was being honest.

So she flipped her hand over so that she could squeeze his, and gave him a cracking smile. "Sure, tomorrow. We'll get your Biology homework done, can't have you crying over it again, can we?"

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Raven is suspicious about Polly, and Eve receives a gift in the post.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's note: Please remember to leave reviews. I haven't been getting many recently and it's a little discouraging.

Anyway, a chapter to get you even more confused about the situation! Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

 **Sunday 4** **th** **October 2020**

The girl looked so peaceful, laid there on the bed. Her dark hair fanned out around her face like a halo, her head turned to the side and her lips open slightly as she gently breathed in and out. She was a pretty girl. Young. Innocent. Looking at her like this, no one would have thought that she'd been in any trouble; she didn't look capable of trouble.

Did trying to kill yourself count as trouble? Raven Fox thought so. To be suicidal, one had to be in some sort of trouble – depression, mental illness, or as it seemed in Rosa Benitez's case, manipulated into doing so. That was definitely trouble.

According to the nurses, Rosa wouldn't tell anybody a thing. Still though, Raven had sat by her bedside in the school hospital for twenty minutes now, waiting for the girl to wake in the hopes that she could squeeze some answers out of her. Who had she been talking about, who did she want to make happy? Was it connected with the suicides?

The suicides were all she had been thinking about recently. Raven didn't know why she had become so obsessed with figuring out the mystery, didn't even know if they really were linked. The only thing she had to go on was Polly speaking to one of the girls the night before she died, but nothing to link her to the others. Maybe the first girl's suicide had simply given the others the 'confidence' to do something that they too had been thinking about for a while now. The girls hadn't been friends, hadn't even been the same age, and had probably never even talked to each other once in their life.

What did Raven expect? To find that they had some kind of secret suicide pact that they had managed to hide from their friends and families? Being a savant _could_ be hard on some people, depending on what their power was and how they used it. It was just that the suicides being so close together seemed like no coincidence.

None of that explained why she felt like she had to be the one to figure this out and stop whatever was happening.

A nurse entered the small room, whistling to herself and carrying a bunch of white carnations in a glass vase. "Don't mind me, love," she said in a lilting Welsh accent. "A friend of Rosa's just dropped these off for her." She placed the vase on the square table by Raven and smiled. "Beautiful," she said about the flowers before leaving the room to go back to her daily duties, whatever they may be.

Out of boredom more than anything else, Raven leaned over and smelled the flowers. They reminded her of her grandma, who'd grown carnations of all different colours in her back garden. There was a small envelope tucked into the centre of the flowers, which Raven took hold of and pulled out. Curiously, wondering what sort of year seven girl thought of buying flowers for a friend, she opened the little envelope and slid a piece of card out. The writing on there was in a feminine, neat, cursive script. It read:

 _Rosa, I am so sorry to hear about what happened – and so is he. He is eager to see you, so as soon as you're well again we must arrange for you to meet up with him._

 _Polly_

Raven frowned, her top lip pulling up in a sneer. She was angry that Polly clearly now had something to do with this, but also completely, totally smug – Polly had something to do with this! A link, finally. She knew that she hadn't been going insane with her distrust of Polly, and this was just proof that she had a reason to be suspicious about her. It also raised the same question she'd been thinking of since yesterday: who was 'he'?

As a plan formed in her head, she put the note and the envelope back into the flowers and pulled her phone out of her rucksack. Opening her contacts, her first instinct was to call Eve but she hesitated before clicking on her sister's name.

Their whole life, Eve had always been Raven's partner-in-crime along with their other sister Lavender. Eve had always hated disobeying the rules and misbehaving, but she'd done it for her sisters and Raven had always known she could rely on Eve to be her lookout… But she couldn't bring herself to call Eve. They were getting their relationship back on track, yes, but she didn't know if she quite trusted Eve again just yet. Too much had happened in their life for it to be that easy.

So instead, she kept scrolling and pressed another name too. The phone was answered after five rings, a cheery voice answering. "Raven Fox. I never expected a call off you today, how may I be of service?"

She rolled her eyes at Micah's playing around but the seriousness of the matter kept her from laughing. "I need your help with something."

Catching on to the no-joking vibe, Micah answered normally this time. "What's going on?"

"You're going to think I'm insane, but I think Polly Brooks is connected to all these suicides. I'll explain everything later, but right now I need you to agree to be my lookout."

"Lookout for what, exactly?"

"I want to break into her bedroom. I don't know what I'm looking for, just something, anything that connects her to the other girls. Oh, and maybe something about an unnamed guy that she might be working with." Raven stopped talking and paused, waiting for a reply from Micah. When there was none, she sighed. "You don't have to, of course. I get it – if we get caught, we'll get detention."

Micah laughed. "When has a detention ever put me off from doing anything? Alright, Raven Fox, I will be your lookout on this dangerous quest of ours."

Again, Raven rolled her eyes, a smile on her face.

* * *

After studying with Sam and Leigh for a while, Eve left them downstairs. Leigh had been moaning recently that her and her girlfriend never got any time alone together anymore, so Eve thought she'd give them some today. Even if it was for something as boring as studying.

Leaving the stairwell and entering the corridor of her floor, she was in a good mood. Whilst studying, she'd been texting Quinn back and forth, talking about nonsensical things and getting a warm feeling inside just from talking to him. She liked that they were getting things good between them again but planned on taking things slowly with him – he'd freaked out last time she'd mentioned soulfinders, she didn't want that to repeat itself. Besides, she just wanted to be his friend. For now, anyway.

Blushing at where her thoughts were taking her, she paused outside her bedroom door to fish her keys out of her bag. Man, she really had to start emptying this thing. She felt like Mary Poppins half of the time, couldn't find a damn thing…

Her foot kicked something and she looked down, confused. A plain white box sat there with her name in bold print on the top. A sense of dread formed in the pit of her stomach as she picked it up, quickly rifled through her bag until she finally grabbed her keys, and rushed into the bedroom.

She closed the door behind her with her foot and fell to the floor, ripping open the box and pulling out the contents.

Like the last one, this package contained photos of her. Walking to class, having dinner with her friends outside, and other various normal activities. There was a card inside too. The front page of the card said "for my love" and had loveheart decorations on it. Slowly opening it, Eve read what had been carefully written inside:

 _Eve,_

 _Just look at these photos of you. They capture your beauty perfectly; they're truly something to cherish, don't you think? Of course, if I had you by my side I wouldn't need these photos. I have my copy here yes, but nobody compares to the real you._

 _All I want is a chance, Eve. A chance to explain myself. Surely you can give me that? I'm sure you have a few things you would like to say to me yourself._

 _How about we meet at midnight tonight by the school stables?_

Eve dropped her head into her hands, feeling like crying. Feeling like screaming. She was terrified, but more than anything she was angry. How dare he talk like he loved her? Like they were meant for each other or some shit? He didn't deserve a thing from her, let alone an explanation for his actions.

But he was goddamn right that she had a few things to say to him. This was a matter where her social anxiety didn't even come into it; this was her life he was destroying and she refused to sit back and let him. She decided that yes, she would meet him tonight.

Especially when she realised that there were no stamps or address on the box. This hadn't been delivered through the post. Either he had somebody at the school to pass these things along for him, or he somehow had access to get inside school buildings himself. Security was tight here, electronic card keys needed to get into every building, so how would he have managed that?

* * *

 _Lost in a vision, Quinn watched Raven enter an old, beautiful church. She stood at the bottom of the aisle, looking ahead of her. The place was dark, empty of people except from a figure dressed all in black sat in the pew second row from the front. She strode forward and took a seat next to the figure._

 _The other person had a hood pulled up and their head down, so Quinn had no chance of seeing his face in the darkness of the church. However, from the broadness of the shoulders and the way the figure was sat, he identified the person as a man._

 _"_ _So," Raven said, crossing one leg over the other and relaxing in the pew. "Eve's meeting you tonight at midnight?" A nod from the man. "By the stables, out of sight?" Another nod. "Good. Although I still don't know why you want her when you have me. I'm basically the same person as her – her 'copy' as you call me." Silence. Raven sighed. "Fine. Moving on, I think we need to step up our game. We need to try it out on someone older, more powerful. Someone that would be less susceptible to manipulation usually. It's what you need and you know it; so I think it's worth the risk of failure. We have to at least try, right?_

 _"_ _I have a suggestion: Gracie Benedict." A small flinch from the man. "I know, she comes across as untouchable. But that power of hers… Think of what you could do with it. You phone your little plaything at the academy and tell her to start moving in on Gracie. Gracie's death will be very beneficial for you."_

"Quinn, wake up!" The voice snapped him out of the vision, as did the serious shaking someone was giving his shoulders. He took a deep intake of breath and the shaking stopped.

Sitting up on his bed, he saw Flash stood in front of him, looking down with a concerned look on his face. "Sorry mate," Flash grimaced. "I know you haven't been sleeping well at night, but you looked like you were having a serious nightmare. Looked like you were in pain. What was it?"

"Not a dream," Quinn shook his head, running a hand through his already messy hair. "A vision. I think Gracie's-" He stopped for a moment as he remembered something else Raven had said. Eve was meeting this guy. Tonight. He was worried for Gracie too of course, but he could only deal with one thing at a time. "What time is it?"

Flash looked at his phone. "11:48. Why?"

Quinn flung his duvet from his body and stood up, fumbling around on the floor for the clothes he'd thrown off before going to bed. Where the hell were they? At this rate, it looked like he was going out in just his boxers. Flash silently handed over a pile of clothes. "Thanks."

As Quinn got dressed, he sensed Flash sitting on his own bed and watching his friend. Probably thinking he was going insane, but whatever. When Quinn finally stood up again and looked over, Flash looked up at him, blushing a dark red. What was that about?

"Well? Are you coming or not?"

No questions asked, Flash followed him out of their bedroom.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Eve goes to meet 'him'.


	14. Chapter 14

Author's note:

Thank you for the reviews on the previous chapter. I hope you like this one - you finally get some answers!

There's two dates as you can see below, because this is taking place around midnight so it's kind of both.

* * *

 **Sunday 4** **th** **October 2020 / Monday 5** **th** **October 2020**

Eve folded her arms over her thick wool coat, teeth chattering as a gust of cold night air hit her. She'd only realised once getting to the back of the stables that she would be out of sight of the school, meaning nobody would see her through their window and know if she needed help. This fact amplified her fears for tonight and she contemplated just going straight back to her room, telling herself it was a bad idea to come here in the first place.

What person in their right mind would do what she was doing right now? What person would meet an anonymous guy that had been stalking her for years and had done the things she suspected him of doing? She had no idea who he was or what he looked like, and she could only make guesses as to what he wanted her for.

But she couldn't leave. She had to meet him, finally. She wanted answers and she wanted to tell him to leave her alone; this could be the only opportunity she had to speak to him face-to-face and she wouldn't throw that away just because she was scared.

Eve saw movement out of the corner of her eyes, her head quickly whipping around to get a better look. To her right, he was walking towards her. Her breath quickened, the air so cold she could see her own breaths. He was getting closer and closer, and she felt incapable of moving at all – her mind was screaming at her to run away from this dangerous man, but her body just wasn't listening.

He stopped a short distance in front of her. He was taller than she expected, with broad shoulders and a fit physique. From what she could tell, anyway. He was dressed all in black, with a jumper that had a hood pulled low over his head. A thick black scarf was wrapped around the bottom half of his face, meaning that all she could see of him was his light blue eyes. Those eyes stared at her now, the pupils dilated; she could have sworn they looked happy.

"Hello, Eve," he said, his voice muffled by the thickness of the scarf around his mouth so his words sounded a little distorted. She couldn't discern his accent because of it either. "I'm so happy to finally be face-to-face with you in the open like this. I do miss our chats, so I've really been looking forward to this moment."

She gulped, wanting to sob and tell him to leave her alone straight away. But that would have defeated the purpose of why she came, so she took a few long seconds to compose herself and imagined what Raven would say if she was stood here instead of Eve. "Enough with the bullshit, Luke… Or whatever your real name is. After months of silence, why start sending me things again now? Hmm? If you think I appreciate the creepy photos, then you're wrong."

"But they're so beautiful," he crooned, actually sounding sincere. "I've always wanted you to see the beauty of yourself. Did you really come to talk to me about my presents?"

Another second to think of her answer first. "Not just that, no. I still don't understand what you want from me. Why can't you just forget about me and let me live my life?"

"You know why." He spoke gently, as if explaining something obvious to a child. "You and I have always had a connection. I know you better than anyone – you said that once, if you remember. Fate may not have destined us to be together as soulfinders, but that doesn't mean we can't choose to be soulmates. I want us to be happy together, my dear Eve. I will stop at nothing to have that."

She didn't want to comprehend what he was saying so she blurted out the first thing that came into her mind: "is _she_ with you? Has she been with you this whole time?" It was a suspicion she hadn't told anyone and it felt good to finally get the question out.

A heartbeat later he replied, no longer sounded patient with her. "You'll find out soon," he snapped. "When you come with me, you'll know."

"Come with you?!" She took a few steps back from him, body trembling. Her voice shook as she said, "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Sadly, my dear, you don't have a choice in the matter."

He raised a hand, almost as if he wanted a high five, and a second later Eve's eyes drooped closed as a sudden tiredness took over her body. Her mind and limbs were exhausted, all she needed was a little nap… _NO!_ She knew he was messing with her mind somehow, she knew what manipulation felt like. She struggled against it, trying to tense her relaxing body and keep her eyes open.

No matter how hard she fought though, she couldn't win. She was oh so tired, she just needed to rest. So tired…

* * *

It had taken far longer than Quinn would have liked to sneak out of the dorms, past security, and make their way over to the stables without being caught. They rushed over there as quickly as they could under the circumstances, however both he and Flash stopped when they caught sight of Eve.

There was someone stood in front of her, someone dressed all in black. It was the man from Quinn's vision, the one that had been talking to Raven in the dark church. It looked like Eve was talking to him, but Quinn couldn't discern what she was saying or what emotion she was feeling from this distance.

"Who is that?" Flash whispered, so close to Quinn that their shoulders were pressed against each other. "The dude looks creepy."

 _Understatement of the year,_ Quinn thought, unamused. He watched the two in front of him with narrowed eyes, watching as Eve took a few steps away from the man, as if she were scared of him. A moment later, the guy raised a hand. Eve shook her head, body swaying from side to side before she collapsed to the floor.

Quinn's. Heart. Stopped.

It was the first time since he'd found out he and Eve were soulfinders that he'd truly _felt_ it. Her speaking in his mind had been amazing, but had nothing on the fear of losing her. He felt a roar burst from his lips as his body unfroze and he started running towards her. She was his, and she needed him. He'd felt protective of her before, which was evident in the way he wanted to keep Raven from her, but now he felt like he could kill somebody to protect her.

It was an eye-opening revelation: he couldn't just be her friend. They were soulfinders and that meant something to him now. He hadn't understood it before, had hated not having the choice of who he should be with, but he understood now: his heart had chosen Eve for him before they'd even been born, and it was now down to his head to catch up with that connection and those feelings.

He saw something whizz past him, like a gust of wind. He realised within a second that it was Flash, using his power to get to Eve quicker than Quinn would. It was the first time Quinn had seen Flash use his power and he understood now why people had given him that nickname.

By the time Quinn reached them, Flash was knelt beside Eve and the man dressed in black was disappearing in the distance, having run as soon as he'd realised the boys were here. Probably too worried about someone discovering his identity. Quinn briefly thought that he doubted this was over, that the guy would give up that easily, before he turned his attention to Eve.

As he knelt down, Flash quietly said, "She's breathing. I think maybe she's just asleep? She doesn't look hurt."

Not answering his friend, Quinn pulled Eve onto his lap and cradled her head to his chest. He stroked her hair, only barely registering that his hand was shaking. "Evie," he whispered, pressing a soft kiss against her forehead. "Eve, wake up. Please, darling."

"Quinn, maybe we should get a teacher-"

"No, not yet," he interrupted Flash. "She's fine, she's okay. I don't want her to be in trouble for going out after curfew. She's fine."

"Quinn…"

He could hear the worried tone in Flash's voice, but didn't have the energy to reassure his friend that he wasn't about to have a mental breakdown. He kept his eyes trained on Eve's face, cherishing each breath she took as it let him know that at least she was alive. What had the man done to her? He stroked her hair still, whispering to her in an attempt to wake her.

It felt like years when her eyelids fluttered open, but he knew that logically it was probably more like just a few minutes. Her body jerked in his arms and she gasped, awaking with a start. "Quinn," she croaked, looking up at him. Her eyes widened and she sat up quickly, looking around. "Where is he? You have to go, he'll hurt you-"

"Shh," Quinn stood up after she did, grabbing her arm to try and calm her. "He's gone, Eve. He's gone; you're safe."

She stopped looking around and stared at him, barely paying attention to Flash. "Really?" Quinn nodded. "Wait… What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," his lips quirked up into a smile. He felt better now, knowing that she really was okay and that the man from his visions hadn't hurt her. "Why don't you come back to our room? We'll sneak you in, we know a way around the security guards. I think we both have some explaining to do, don't you?"

* * *

Quinn handed a glass of water to Eve and sat down beside her on the edge of his bed, shooting Flash a nervous look. Eve had barely spoken on the way over and now wouldn't even meet their eyes. Quinn was worried about her. Was she in shock? He knew that could happen to people who went through a bad experience. He was about to ask her when she finally spoke up.

"I'm afraid about telling you everything," she admitted before taking a slow sip of her drink.

Quinn reached out and put a hand on her back, gently rubbing it. It was a move that surprised both him and Eve by the looks of it, and had just been instinctive to him. He felt different towards her since she'd collapsed, like there was an energy between them that hadn't been there before. He didn't know if she felt it too, but for him something had definitely changed when it came to their relationship.

He answered her in a soft voice. "I'd say that you don't have to worry about telling us but I'm pretty selfish and I really want to know. I had a vision of him and I could sense that he was dangerous, so when he said that he was going to meet you I knew that I had to go too. Why did you agree to meet him, Eve? It looked like you knew him."

"I do. Sort of. I mean, I used to think that I did but then the truth came out and… I don't know who he is."

Quinn frowned, trying and failing to make sense of this. He didn't understand what she meant and told her so before adding, "Take your time."

Eve took a deep breath, still refusing to look neither Quinn nor Flash in the eyes. When she spoke, she told her story slowly and it sounded like she hadn't talked about this for a long time. "It started almost three years ago or so, when I was fourteen. I wasn't doing so well. My mum hating me was getting to me, I had no friends at school, and even though my siblings loved me I always felt like the odd one out. It was around that time that Raven started going out with boys and having other friends, and she didn't always have the time for me.

"I felt so alone, so I spent most of my time online. I ran a blog writing book reviews and this guy messaged me saying that he liked reading what I wrote and that I made him want to get more into reading. We exchanged emails and continued talking that way. He told me his name was Luke Dougherty, he was the same age as me, and that he lived in Ireland.

"We spoke all the time; I told him everything. I felt like I'd finally found a true friend, someone that I could always rely on – I always looked forward to getting new emails from him. I didn't tell anyone about him, because as silly as it sounds I thought my sisters would steal him away from me. Guys always preferred them over me and I didn't want that to happen with Luke. He was my secret and I liked that.

"Once, he confessed that he was a savant and I was so shocked, I mean, what a coincidence, right?! When I told him that I was too, we exchanged birthdays and they were just a week apart." She looked at Quinn and blushed as she said the next part. "I was convinced he was my soulfinder. I'd never felt that way about anyone before and I felt like no-one understood me like he did. This went on for a year and I'd never been happier. I was so in love with him. Or at least I thought I was."

Quinn moved his hand away from her back and instead took hold of her hand instead. She squeezed his palm with such a sad look on her face that he didn't know what else to say other than, "What went wrong?" Because of course, something had to have gone wrong. She spoke of it in such a lost, melancholy tone that he knew something awful must have happened.

"Raven found out," she whispered, looking down at their joined hands. "Her laptop broke so she borrowed mine to do some homework. I must have left my emails open because she saw everything. There was some… Intimate stuff on there. Not just what Luke and I said to each other but… Well, he convinced me to send him photos, and I'm not talking normal selfies."

Her entire face went bright red and she stubbornly refused to look back up at him and Quinn was glad for it. The thought of naked photos of Eve caused a rush of blood to his own face as well in anger that she had done that, especially for another guy.

Unaware of his thoughts, Eve continued. "Looking back, I know I was stupid for agreeing to send those photos, especially when he never sent me any photos of him. I didn't even know what he looked like. Raven saw everything and said those exact words to me: _I was stupid._

"She told me that Luke was probably some old perv, that it happened all the time, and I was so naïve for believing it. I begged her not to tell mum. I cried my eyes out telling her that I loved Luke and when we had the money we were going to meet, and that we'd live happily ever after." Eve sounded bitter. "Raven persisted though. She was being protective of me and although I told I'd hate her forever for taking Luke away from me, I knew that I would have done the same thing for her."

"Did the thought of him not being who he said he was ever cross your mind that year?" Flash asked from where he sat on his own bed, leaning forward on his knees so he could listen to the story better.

Eve shook her head. "I guess it should have, yes. But I felt such a connection between us that no, I never thought he'd lie to me about anything."

"So Raven told your mum," Quinn guessed, prompting her to continue with the story, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Eve nodded. "Mum didn't even care. Remember how I told you she's never liked me and thinks I'm a curse on the family? Well, that didn't change just because I was talking to someone online. She said that I was old enough to make my own decisions and the consequences of those were something I had to deal with myself."

Yet again, Quinn found himself feeling hatred towards this woman that he'd never even met. He should have respected his soulfinder's mother, but instead he felt the opposite towards her.

"Raven didn't give up though," Eve continued. "She told my brother, Ash. He's in the police so he was able to do some research. It turned out that Luke Dougherty didn't exist and instead of being from Ireland, the IP address traced back to a library in Manchester. The same city I'm from.

"I was devastated. I didn't want to believe that the boy I was in love with had lied to me about who he was. Raven thought it was someone at school messing with me but we had no way to prove it and no idea who it would be. Eventually, I wrote Luke one final email: I told him I knew he had lied to me and I didn't want anything to do with him anymore. I blocked him completely and I thought that was the end of it."

"Well, it obviously wasn't," Flash spoke up, sounding angry. "The bastard clearly came back for you if tonight is anything to go by."

"He started sending me messages in the post in March this year. It was creepy, he was mentioning places that he'd seen me – it was obvious he was stalking me and I was terrified that he could get that close to me and I wouldn't know. I didn't know what he was going to do to me. Then-" She cut off and shook her head, as if stopping herself from saying something. It was obvious to Quinn then that there was still a secret she was keeping from him, but he decided not to push her too much. Besides, he was keeping a secret from her too: that Raven was on this Luke's side now. He couldn't bring himself to tell Eve that just yet, so he wouldn't pester her about whatever she was hiding.

"He stopped sending me things in July, but it started again when I came here. He's sent me photos taken of me at school and has sent me a text too, so he knows my number clearly. His packages are hand delivered too, so unless he has access to the school somehow, someone here is working for him. I don't know who though." She met Quinn's eyes, her bottom lip trembling. "He wants me to go somewhere with him, probably meaning he'd never let me go. I'm so scared, Quinn. I don't know what to do."

Quinn wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, hugging her tightly. "We'll sort this out." He didn't know how they'd do that, but he was certain that he wouldn't let anyone hurt Eve. Her story was haunting to him and he found himself furious at her for getting herself involved in something like this in the first place, even though he knew that was unfair to her.

He had to sort this out somehow. It was his duty as her soulfinder.

* * *

Author's note:

So, Quinn is finally acknowledging that they're soulfinders and that they can't be just friends. I hope you like how I've done this development, let me know.

 **In the next chapter:** Raven breaks into Polly's room, but will she get caught?


	15. Chapter 15

Author's note:

Please remember to leave me a review with your thoughts on the chapter :)

Also, I haven't been reading any Finding Sky fanfics recently but I really want to. If you write one, or if you read a good one that you recommend, please tell me in a review so I can check it out! :)

* * *

 **Monday 5** **th** **October 2020**

The sound of the _The Walking Dead_ opening credits music harshly woke Eve up at 6:30am. Groaning, she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and tried to block out the sound of the insufferable music. She'd barely slept, having fallen asleep finally sometime after 3, being too shaken to sleep at first after telling her story to Quinn and Flash. Her head dropped forward, hitting something solid.

Eve's eyes shot open again, greeted by the sight of a bare chest right in front of her face. She groggily lifted her head to see Quinn laid beside her, eyes flickering open as he was awoken too. Their bodies were pressed tight against each other so they could both fit onto the single bed, and she could feel the weight of his arm draped around her waist. It came back to her then, that Quinn had suggested her staying the night at his instead of sneaking back to hers last night.

Quinn cursed and let go of her, fumbling around under the cushion until he found his phone, turning that awful alarm off. Dropping the phone, his arm found its way back around Eve's waist. He nuzzled his nose into her hair until she tilted her head back to look up at him again.

"Morning, Evening," he said quietly, a happy glint in his eyes.

"I knew I'd regret telling you my real name." Her voice was slightly raspy, from tiredness and dehydration.

Quinn chuckled and looked past her for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "That's weird."

"What is?"

"Flash is already gone. I normally have to drag him out of bed to make sure he gets breakfast, or at least to class on time. I guess he was hungry," he shrugged it away and tightened his grip on her waist whilst smiling. "You know, I've got to admit that waking up next to you is not all that bad."

Eve blushed and let out a slightly nervous giggle. She wasn't quite sure how to respond, she just knew that she felt the same way too. A yawn escaped her mouth, saving her from having to reply to his comment. "God, can we just, I don't know, not go to school? I need more sleep."

"If you want Mrs Steele, the scary attendance officer, to come hunting you down to find out why you aren't in class, then sure," Quinn joked. His voice then took on a more serious tone. "Come on, Evie. It's your fault you were out so late in the first place. What the hell were you thinking actually going to meet that guy?"

So, here was the lecture that she'd been expecting last night. He sounded furious. "I was thinking that I could get all of this to just stop once and for all," she sighed.

Eve didn't realise she'd moved her hand until it was no longer pressed to her chest and was instead on the back of Quinn's head, fingers tangled in his hair. Quinn froze, staring at her with intense eyes. She saw him gulp. "Please," she whispered. "I don't want to talk about this, I know I made a mistake. Can we just not talk about it right now? Please."

It was a long moment before Quinn nodded his head. "Alright. Look, if you want to get out of the boys dorms with not that many people noticing you then we should leave soon. The morning rush is typically around 7 o'clock, so we should hurry."

Knowing that he was right, Eve nodded and extracted herself from his hold as she slid out of the bed. Honestly, a huge part of her was dying to stay in bed with Quinn all day, but the more sensible part of her was too terrified to think about what that would do to their friendship. She didn't know what the hell was going on between them right now.

Once stood firmly on two feet, it was then that she realised she wasn't dressed decently. She was wearing a thin green cotton t-shirt of Quinn's on top of her underwear, the shirt stopping just at the top of her thighs.

"My top fits you perfectly," she heard Quinn say from behind her. "You should keep it. It's too small on me now anyway."

"Um, thanks," she mumbled awkwardly, looking around for her clothes. She found them folded neatly on Quinn's desk chair and walked over to grab them. When Quinn said her name to get her attention again, she spun back around to face him, trying to tug on the hem of the t-shirt to pull it lower. Her attempts didn't work. "Yeah?"

"You look hot." A huge grin spread across his face and he made of show and running his eyes up and down her body, lingering on her bare legs for a moment before meeting her eyes again.

"Quinn!" She exclaimed with a gasp. She was pretty sure that after that comment of his her whole body was blushing. As she rushed into the en-suite bathroom, she could hear him laughing from the bed.

As she refreshed herself and got dressed, Eve thought about how she was sure she hadn't seen Quinn this happy in the whole time she'd known him. It'd always seemed like there was something upsetting him, and Eve had the feeling it'd been that he felt like he didn't belong here. He'd never said so, but he must have felt like the odd one out being the only one in their group new to the savant world. But this morning, there was a lightness to him. She liked seeing him like this.

Was it because of her?

When she emerged from the bathroom again, Quinn was fully dressed too and was sat on the edge of his bed, leaning forward to tie the laces of his shoes. "Hey, I borrowed your toothbrush. I hope you don't mind. At least, I think it was yours. The plain blue one? The only other one in there was red with a yellow lightning bolt on, and that seems more like it'd belong to Flash than you."

Quinn looked up and grinned yet again. "Yeah, that one's Flash's. It's fine, don't worry about it." He stood up and walked over, shifting around her. "Give me a moment and we'll head off, okay?"

Whilst Quinn was in the bathroom, Eve looked around the room. She hadn't really paid much attention to it last night – or rather, earlier this morning she guessed – as she had been too shaken up, but now she could finally get a look at it.

The room was exactly as she would have expected the room of two teenage boys to be. Meaning, Flash had posters of topless models on his side of the room, both beds were unmade, dirty clothes littered the floor, and sports paraphernalia was the main decorations in the place.

"Eve." She spun around to see that Quinn was done in the bathroom. "Shall we get going?" As they both put on their coats, he continued talking. "So what are you doing after school?"

"Raven and I are gonna hang out in her room and watch a film on her laptop," she replied, doing up the last button on her winter coat. She looked at him. "Why do you ask?"

Quinn's jaw twitched and she saw a flash of something cross his face. Before she could figure out what was up with him though, he was smiling at her again with gentle eyes. "Do you reckon you could change your plans? Please, please, please," he pleaded with her, pouting his bottom lip in playfulness. "Rugby try-outs are today, remember? I feel like I'd have a better chance of doing well if you were stood watching in the sidelines. Come on, you can watch something with Raven anytime, just choose me instead of her this one time."

Eve narrowed her eyes at him and asked, "Why would you do better with me there?" Even she could hear the laughter in her voice.

Quinn moved to stand beside her and linked the fingers of his right hand with those of her left. Holding hands with him startled her enough that she felt a little speechless. "You're my soulfinder, so I'm predicting that means you'll give me some good luck out there."

"Um," she stammered, still flustered from holding his hand. It was different to holding his hand in the cinemas somehow, more intimate considering they were stood in his bedroom and not sat in darkness where they didn't have to look at each other. "That's a thought. I mean, maybe you're right but, I don't know, it's a long shot."

His thumb started stroking the back of her hand. His palm was warm and fit perfectly against hers. "So? Will you cancel the movie with Raven and come watch me play?"

She smiled, feeling giddy in his presence all of a sudden. She was thrilled that he wanted her to support him in this, and that he was finally acknowledging that they were soulfinders. "Yeah. I will, yes. I'm sure Raven won't mind, we only planned it because we had nothing else to do."

"Great." He looked as happy as she felt. "Come on, let's go."

Quinn held her hand the whole time on the walk to the canteen and, when they got inside, he didn't let go like she'd been expecting him to. They headed towards their usual table, where she could see Flash, Leigh, and Sam, already sat. He didn't even let go of her hand when their friends saw them and didn't look at all astonished to see the pair of them together.

As they sat down, Leigh raised her eyebrows at Eve as if to tell her that she knew that she'd stayed out all night and wanted details. Embarrassed, she looked away from her friend and back at Quinn who was sat down next to her, still holding her hand and still smiling.

"Truth. Why do you have the same thing for breakfast every single day?" He asked her.

Eve shrugged. "I like toast."

Quinn laughed. "Fair enough. Toast it is." He finally let go of her hand and stood up. "I'll be right back with your breakfast, Evening."

"Stop calling me that!" She argued, glaring at him as he walked away, laughing.

* * *

Raven and Micah sat in the living room of the girls dorms and watched as the last few girls made their way out of the building to head to their first class. Raven had been smirking at some of her friends as they left, playing the act of the girl skipping school to hang out with a boy. She didn't worry about any of the girls tattling on her, as they all tended to stick together most of the time.

They waited in tense silence for a few minutes to make sure all the girls had left the building, before she finally turned on the sofa to angle her body towards Micah. "Okay, so you're staying down here and if Polly or her roommate come back, you're going to tell me telepathically so I can get the hell out of there."

"I know the plan, Raven," Micah rolled his eyes. "We've gone over it a hundred times already and it's not really a complicated plan that I might find hard to understand. Did you get the keys?"

Raven held up a set of keys in front of her. "Sure did." She'd swiped them from Polly's roommate's coat pocket just half an hour ago as she'd left the building, so quickly that nobody had noticed.

"Ooh, you're devious, Raven Fox." Micah laughed and slouched back on the sofa, getting himself comfortable. "Go on then, the sooner we get this over with the better." Micah knew what Raven suspected Polly of and why she felt it was necessary to sneak around in Polly's room. Like Raven, he didn't know what kind of thing she'd find, but unlike her, Micah didn't really care if she would or not. He wasn't fully convinced Polly was connected to the suicides. This left Raven even more determined to find evidence so that she could prove it to him. Still though, he was helping her and for that she was thankful.

Jumping up to her feet, she nodded her head and started to head towards the staircase. "Good luck," Micah called out to her.

Polly's room was on the first floor so it didn't take long for Raven to get there. Palming the keys, she had a quick worry that the keys wouldn't work, but they did. Swinging the door open, she took a few steps into the room and closed the door behind her.

Polly and Natalia's room was just how Raven would have pictured it, meaning that she found it absolutely horrific. Everything was pink. The fabric pinned up to cover the plain white walls, the bedcovers, the rug, the dressing gowns thrown on the floor… Pink everywhere. It was Raven's idea of hell and she already couldn't wait to get out of there.

Firstly, she started rooting through both chest of drawers and the two drawers under each wardrobe, not finding anything but clothes and a pack of cigarettes hidden in a sock. She couldn't imagine Polly smoking, so she guessed those belonged to Natalia. When she got to their underwear drawers, she winced in displeasure but continued rooting through to make sure there was nothing suspicious hidden in there.

She looked under the pillows and in the pillowcase, underneath the mattresses, in every trinket box she found, in empty handbags, and under the beds. Then, just when she was sure that she'd covered every inch of the room and was about to give up and leave, she remembered that there was a bathroom too.

Feeling like an idiot, she opened the bathroom door and was greeted with yet more pink. _Oh, Lord._ Again, she started searching: behind the toilet, in the small baskets full of toiletries and make-up, even in the three tampon boxes stacked in a corner of the bathroom. Still, nothing out of the ordinary.

Until she saw the loose tile behind the tampon boxes. The academy prided itself on the quality of the accommodation for the students and wouldn't have allowed anyone to move into a room with any problems whatsoever, and Polly and Natalia seemed like girls who wouldn't allow any imperfections in their room without reporting it.

Raven wiggled the loose tile free and found a hole in the wall that struck her as something that was certainly not supposed to be there. Reaching into the hole, her fingers clasped hold of something and as she pulled it free, she discovered that it was a mobile phone. Black, and a model that was probably a few years old.

Polly had a pink iPhone, and although Raven didn't know what phone Natalia had she was betting she'd have one of the newest smartphones out there too. Besides, who would put their phone in a hole in the wall? Only someone with something to hide, Raven reckoned.

Raven stashed the phone in her jeans pocket and put the tile back in place, hiding it with the boxes again. Just as she stood up, she felt Micah enter her mind less than a second before she heard his voice.

 _"_ _Polly's coming up! Get out of there!"_

Mindblown. That was the only word that Raven could use to describe how she felt in that moment. Her entire body tingled, the blood roaring through her veins feeling like it was on fire, leaving her breathless. The sensation was so intense that she couldn't move, as one word appeared in her mind, lit up as if in fireworks: _Soulfinder._

The sound of voices outside the bedroom door abruptly brought her back to her senses and she pushed thoughts of Micah to the back of her mind for the time being. She quickly swung the bathroom door closed, making sure it was ajar slightly, at the same time as the bedroom door was opened.

Looking through the gap in the open doorway and praying that nobody needed to come into the bathroom, Raven watched as Polly entered the room. It was a shock to see Gracie trailing behind her considering the two barely interacted and were nowhere near being friends.

Polly started rifling through the drawer in her bedside table. "I know my pencil-case is in here somewhere," she was saying. "I can't believe I had to come back for it. School is so pointless. I'm only staying here because my daddy said he'd buy me a convertible if I did. What about you, Gracie? A-ha!" She held a pink pencil-case in the air triumphantly before stuffing it into her designer handbag. "What about you?" She repeated. "Why do stick around? Because to me it looks like you spend half your time here looking after Killian. He's a little weird, don't you think? People are still scared of him and I don't blame them, he totally has that psycho vibe."

Raven's eyes looked over to Gracie, who always defended Killian in any situation no matter what. He was her soulfinder, of course she would. But this time Gracie didn't reply at all. Instead, she was glancing around the room, looking utterly confused. It was almost like she couldn't figure out why she was there yet didn't want to leave at the same time. It was odd, not like the confident Gracie that Raven knew so well.

"You know," Polly continued, lips turned up into a smile. "You shouldn't hang out with Killian all the time, I'm sure that's not healthy for a relationship. Don't let him control you, Gracie. Anyway, let's get to class before we get in even more trouble for being late." She laughed, hooked her arm through Gracie's and led her out of the room.

Once they'd locked the door behind them, Raven waited for a few minutes in the bathroom still, not wanting to risk being caught. _"Coast is clear,"_ Micah finally told her. A jolt of energy lit her up from within and she forgot entirely about why she'd come into Polly's room as her whole being was focused only on Micah.

She moved fast, leaving the room and pausing to lock the door behind her so Polly would never know that she'd been there. She ran down the stairs, almost tripping over and falling head-first down them before righting herself. She didn't stop when she got to the ground floor, setting her eyes on Micah and running straight towards him.

She was acting without even thinking, and caught sight of Micah's baffled expression a second before she jumped into his arms. His hands gripped her thighs as her legs locked around his waist, and he took a few steps back before being able to brace the sudden weight of her body.

"Raven, what-"

She grabbed his face in her hands and pressed her lips against his. She felt him smile as he kissed her back, his lips warm and plump and moulding against hers like they should always be there. Raven had kissed her fair share of guys in her life, but none, not a single one, could measure up to Micah. As they kissed, his fingers dug into her thighs but she didn't care one iota whether it bruised her or not. He was so hot; she couldn't get enough of him.

Micah was the one to break the kiss, pulling his lips away, breathing heavily. "Not that I'm not enjoying this immensely," he said, voice gruff. "But why is this happening?"

She reached out with her mind and happily said to him, _"We're soulfinders."_

Micah's pupils dilated and Raven could swear that she was watching his entire being lit up as he felt what she had not so long ago. "Fuck," he finally mumbled, biting his bottom lip. "Raven Fox. Who the fuck would have guessed?"

He grinned before connecting their lips again. Raven wanted to lose herself in him, wanted to spend the whole day doing nothing but kissing Micah.

So that's exactly what she did.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** A little time-jump.


	16. Chapter 16

**12** **th** **December 2020**

With just one week left of classes before the Christmas holidays, Quinn and Eve had been in the nearest town centre gift shopping all day for their friends and families. Deciding to take a well-deserved break, they found a quaint little café down a side street.

Eve thought the café was lovely, with grey and white décor and doilies in the centre of each table. She made a mental reminder to come here again the next time she was in town.

As the tall, dark-haired waitress brought over their order – a hot chocolate and a slice of chocolate fudge cake each – they both thanked her and fell quiet as they tucked in. Quinn let out an 'mmm' sound with his first mouthful of the cake, making Eve smile in amusement at him.

October and November had passed quickly, and Eve had finally settled into life at the academy and although the work was difficult, especially pushing her powers in Power Construction lessons, she was enjoying her time there now. One of the reasons for this was sat across from her: Quinn Chamberlain.

They'd become so close, not yet dating but still more than just best friends. Eve wasn't sure exactly _what_ they were to each other right now. She just knew that they spent pretty much all their free time together, held hands and hugged, and neither of them had anything going on with anyone else. Did that count as dating? He hadn't kissed her yet and she was too shy to make the first move herself, but is that what defined a relationship? It was confusing, but she was happy with the things were and taking it slowly, so she wasn't going to complain.

"So," Quinn broke the comfortable silence they had been in. "Have you decided what you're doing for Christmas yet? Are you going home for the holidays or staying at school?"

This was something Eve had been thinking about since mid-November time when her classmates started to talk about their plans for the holidays. Most were going home to be with their families but Eve was hesitant about that due to her more-than-rocky relationship with her mum. She'd spoken to her mum on the phone just last night, the first time she had talked to her since September, whom had made it very clear that she didn't want Eve to come home.

"I think I'm just going to stay at school," she finally answered, shrugging like it was no big deal. Like it didn't still hurt her a little that her mum didn't want her around. "I just don't want to deal with the stress of my mum at Christmas, you know? I miss my siblings, and I'd love to see my nephews and nieces again, but… I'll be happier here. Gracie doesn't want to go home for some reason, so she's staying here. Killian is too because he doesn't want to be away from her – so I won't be alone."

"Yeah, but you don't want to be feeling like a third wheel, do you?" Quinn made a good point. "Is Raven going home?"

"Well, she's welcome there, so yes. She's gonna take my presents for everyone home for me, and then bring mine from them back." Quinn frowned; Eve smiled. "Honest, Quinn. It'll be fine. You know, the academy's doing a proper Christmas dinner for those staying and I can guarantee it'll be better than anything my mum can cook, so really, I'm getting a good deal here."

Quinn nodded slowly, as if he partly agreed and partly wanted to argue with her over this. "I have an idea." He spoke slowly and Eve got the feeling he knew it was something she wouldn't like. She leaned forward in her chair, her curiosity giving him her full attention. "Nobody should be alone at Christmas, and it's meant to be difficult for soulfinders to be away from each other, right? That's why Killian's staying here for Gracie. So, why don't you come home with me for Christmas?"

Eve gulped down a mouthful of her drink, feeling it burn the back of her throat. She sat back again, looking at Quinn with wide eyes. He'd said it so casually, like it wasn't the momentous thing that it was to her. Going home with him meant seeing what his life was like before the academy, before she knew him. It meant _meeting his parents_.

She was already shaking her head, about to turn down the idea, but he carried on talking before she could. "Don't say no just yet! Hear me out. I already suggested it to my folks, told them that you don't get along with your mum, and they said it was okay." He reached across the table with one arm and gripped her hand in his. "Especially when I told them how important you are to me."

Eve blushed and stammered a little before finally asking, "What do you mean?"

"I guess someone from the net has been educating them about savants so they can understand the world I'm in now, so they know what soulfinders are. I told them you're mine. They don't know what it feels like, how immense it is, you know, but they get that it's… Well, soulmates. So they know you're gonna be in my life for a pretty long time and they _want_ to meet you.

"We'll have fun, Evie. I promise."

He gave her his biggest grin, one that always made her heart beat faster in her chest. There were butterflies in her stomach as she stared back at him, his words echoing in her mind. _I told them you're mine… you're gonna be in my life for a pretty long time._

Despite being okay with how things were between them, Eve couldn't deny that she longed for more of an intimate connection. Romantic. Did his words mean he thought of that too?

"I don't know," she whispered, pulling her hand out of his and looking down at her drink. "I might just stay here."

"At least think about it?"

Eve nodded, then changed the subject quickly to try and calm her erratic heartbeat. "So have you had anymore visions of him lately?" It was a question she asked at least once every week and the answer was always the same. She knew he'd tell her if there was a change, but still, she always asked because it was always at the back of her mind.

'Luke' had disappeared after that night behind the stables, the night she finally spoke to him in person. No texts, no packages delivered; nothing. Quinn's visions of him had also stopped. Quinn and Flash kept trying to persuade Eve to relax and not worry about him anymore. They said that maybe Luke had been scared off now that he was no longer Eve's secret, but she didn't think so. He'd gone a few months before contacting her again in the months before school started, yet he had still come back.

She knew that he would come back again this time too. It was just a matter of when.

"No," Quinn answered her question. "Eve, can we please not ruin the day by worrying about him?" She smiled at him and nodded, silently agreeing that today had been brilliant and she wanted to keep it that way. "So, listen to this. I saw this new show on Netflix about this guy who…"

For the next ten minutes or so, they spoke about random nonsense that Eve had no doubt she will have forgotten about by the next day. When Quinn took the final bite of his chocolate cake, some cream smeared onto the side of his lip, but he didn't realise and kept talking.

Holding back laughter, Eve leaned forward and wiped the cream away with her thumb. She hadn't even thought about the move beforehand otherwise she never would have been so forward with him. Quinn grabbed her wrist when she went to pull her arm back and, keeping his eyes on hers, he playfully licked the cream from her thumb.

"Quinn!" She exclaimed her surprise, jerking her arm out of his grasp. She was breathing heavily all of a sudden and drank the rest of her hot chocolate to mask that fact.

When she looked up at him again, he was chuckling to himself. "Please spend Christmas with me," he said, grinning still. "I don't want to be away from you for two weeks."

Eve didn't answer, still wanting time to think it through, but in that moment she was ready to say yes.

* * *

With shopping bags in one hand and Micah's hand in her other, Raven strolled down the street, keeping an eye out for somewhere they could go for dinner that wasn't a fast food place. They turned down a side street they hadn't explored earlier and a minute later Micah said, "Hey there's a café there. Shall we just go there? I'm starving."

Raven looked across the street at the café, deciding that it looked like a suitable enough place, meaning it was clean and not rundown. However just as she was about to say yes, she spotted a familiar couple sat a table in front of the windows: Eve and Quinn, laughing and lost in their own world as per usual.

"You know what? Let's just go to McDonalds or something. I know I said I was in the mood for proper food, but it doesn't matter." She tried tugging him away, but it was too late. His eyes were already trained in the spot she had looked at.

Tightening his jaw, Micah let go of Raven's hand and glared at her. "Are you ashamed of me or something?"

"What?! No! Why would you think that?" She frowned, not understanding where this had come from.

"Eve is your twin sister, Raven. I'm your boyfriend, your soulfinder. I would have thought that you'd want us to get along and like each other, but you haven't even introduced us." Micah was seriously pissed off and Raven didn't think she'd ever seen him this angry. "Clearly you must be ashamed of me if you don't want us to meet. Is this a racial thing? Because I swear to god I am fucking sick of being treated like shit because of my skin colour, and I thought that was over when I came here. I never would have thought you were a racist," he spat the ugly words at her.

"Micah!" She shouted, not caring that there were other shoppers on the street that may be having a nosy at them. He was breathing heavily, still looking furiously at her. "First of all, don't you dare ever accuse me of something so disgraceful again. I do not care what you look like, alright? And I'm not ashamed of you. I would love to introduce you to my family; I'd be proud to. You want to know the real reason I avoid Eve when I'm with you?"

"Please, enlighten me," he replied sarcastically, but his eyes were softening up.

"I avoid her because she doesn't care. She's so obsessed with Quinn at the moment that she's had no time for me – I can't even remember the last time we did anything together, just the two of us. I thought things were finally getting better with us, but it's like taking one step forwards and two steps back. She knows that I'm dating you, I mean it's not like we keep it a secret around school, and she hasn't asked me about you. Not once. She hasn't made the effort with you, so why should you bother with her?"

"Raven," Micah said gently, reaching out and taking her hand again. "I didn't know you felt that way, I'm sorry. Have you talked to Eve about this? Maybe she doesn't even realise that she's been pushing you away."

Raven shook her head. "No. I know that I should, but I just can't bring myself to. This time of year, it's just… She's staying at school for Christmas this year, and honestly, I'm glad, Micah. I love her, but this our first Christmas without Lavender so it's just hard being around Eve at the moment. I just can't face her, not yet."

"Lavender?" Micah's eyebrows furrowed together. "That's one of your sisters, right? Do you mean, is she… Dead?"

Raven shook her head. It was a touchy subject and she didn't want to talk about it, ever. She knew that eventually she would open to Micah about it but today was not that day. She just wasn't ready for that. "I'm just saying that I don't want to talk to Eve about all this when my emotions are already all over the place. So can we please find somewhere else to eat?"

Micah studied her face for a second before smiling and nodding his head. He gave her hand a squeeze and they carried on walking, both now hungry enough to eat anything edible, no matter what their preference. When they caught sight of a chip shop at the end of the road, they both started walking quicker which set them off into a round of laughter.

"So," Raven said as their laughter died off. "What's Christmas like in the Lynch household?"

"Oh it's always a big deal," Micah replied, a fond smile on his face at the memories brought up by the question. "The house is always decked out in decorations, on the outside and the inside. Mom always bakes loads of different desserts, as well as making Christmas dinner of course. No turkey though, that gets saved for Thanksgiving, so we have lamb and chicken for Christmas.

"I think my parents go overboard every year mainly because all three of my sisters are under the age of seven, so they still believe in Santa. It's fun, seeing them so excited and everything, you know?"

"That sounds nice," Raven answered honestly. "What are you…" Her voice trailed off and she stopped talking and stopped walking at the same time.

"What's wrong?" Micah asked as he was pulled to a stop by her hand. "Raven?"

"Over there," she pointed across the road so Micah could see what she was looking at.

Polly and her roommate Natalia were leaving a jewellery store and Gracie was trailing behind them. The first two were chatting and looked like they were having a good time, whilst Gracie looked miserable. She had only one shopping bag in her hand and was staring at the ground as she walked. _What is going on with her?_ Raven wondered. Gracie spent all her time with Polly now, as if she had totally forgotten about her old friends. She didn't even spend as much time with Killian anymore.

It was like she was a completely different person.

She heard Micah sigh next to her. "Raven, come on. Just forget about Polly."

She'd tried to do that after failing to get onto the phone she'd stolen from Polly's room. It was password-protected and she couldn't figure out what the password was or how else to get access to the phone. Since October, there had been no more suicides or suicide attempts so Raven had tried to drop the whole investigating thing.

Polly looked over her shoulder at Gracie and gave her new friend a smug, devious smile.

Raven couldn't drop this. She was too invested now and if she couldn't link Polly to the suicides, she could at least get Gracie away from her. She was determined to take Polly down.

* * *

"Well here we are, Luca. Your new home."

In the backseat of the car, Luca Albanesi rolled his eyes at his social worker's words. Patsy Skinner had been Luca's social worker ever since he needed one at the age of eight, so she knew just as well as he did that no foster home would ever be _home_ to him. Frankly, Luca found it quite absurd that Patsy kept on being optimistic with each new foster home. It was so stupid.

As he got out of the car, Luca craned his head back to look at the place he would be living in for what would no doubt only be a short period of time. It was quite a big house, with solar panels on the roof and a wide garage. The front garden had a neat lawn with a few rose bushes and a large tree with a twisted trunk. Christmas lights were strung up on the tree and around every window on the front side of the house, but none were switched on considering it was only 1pm.

Luca followed Patsy up to the front door and stood a step behind her as she rang the doorbell. No more than a minute later the door swung open, revealing a woman. Her dark blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun and she was wearing a red apron over her clothes, tight against her protruding, pregnant belly. She smiled warmly at the two of them and invited them inside, closing the door once they were in the hallway.

The woman turned and looked properly at Luca this time, her smile faltering a little. Luca knew what she was seeing: a scrawny, dark-haired seventeen year old boy with a scowl on his face.

"You must be Luca," the woman finally said, reaching a hand out for him to shake. After an awkward moment, during which his arms remained firmly by his side, she dropped her hand. "Well. It's lovely to meet you, Luca. I'm Ireland Benedict. Welcome."

Luca dropped his duffel bag to the floor as Patsy said, "Where's Mr Benedict?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. My husband wanted to be here but he got called into work for an emergency. He's a doctor." That last part was directed towards Luca before she asked both of them, "Would you like a drink? Coffee, maybe?"

Without waiting for an answer, Ireland headed down the hallway and into a room Luca presumed was the kitchen. Patsy followed, leaving Luca no choice but do so too.

Luca glanced around as they went, seeing that the place wasn't spot clean or pristine. Instead, it was a family home: framed photos hung on the walls, children's toys here and there on the floor, a lone children's shoe in the doorway of the kitchen. The kitchen itself was lovely, with marble countertops and state-of-the-art appliances. The room was large, a kitchen and dining room in one, and there was a grand wooden dining table at one end of the room.

Ireland led them towards the table, where two little girls were sat. One dark-haired and blonde, the blonde being smaller. The two were both leaning forward, scribbling onto the same page of a colouring book. The eldest looked up curiously and said, "hi Patsy and Luca."

Patsy looked taken aback. "How does she know our names?"

Ireland smiled, but Luca wasn't oblivious and he realised that it was faked. "Oh, I told her that you were coming today, that's all. That's Thea, she's four." She then gestured towards the smaller girl. "And that's Felicity, she's two. So, a coffee Patsy?"

After half an hour of small talk and some paperwork being filled out, during which time Luca said nothing at all and got stared at by Thea and Felicity, Ireland finally saw Patsy out of the front door.

Alone with the two girls for a minute, Luca decided that he already had an opinion about Ireland: she was a friendly woman and did seem quite welcoming to him which meant only one thing. She was going to try and be a great foster mom and get involved in his life, which would only lead to Luca hating her. Foster parents were always better when they stayed out of his business and gave him enough freedom to make it easy to run away. He'd run away from every foster home he'd been in, and he doubted this one would be no exception.

Ireland Benedict entered the kitchen again, swiping a plate of cut up apple slices from a countertop and giving it to her daughters to share. She then eased herself into the chair next to Luca and gave him a knowing look.

"I know you're probably not happy to be here," she surprised him by saying. "But my husband and I know your story and we'd really like to help you."

Luca snorted. "What makes you think you're going to be different than any of the people I've lived with before? Knowing my past doesn't make you special and you're not going to change me."

"I don't want to change you. Believe me, I've had my fair share of people trying to do that. But we are different to the other foster parents you've had Luca."

"How's that then?" He didn't bother being polite. It wasn't like when he was younger, when he actually wanted people to like him and maybe even adopt him. No, by now he didn't care if they thought he was a terrible person and wanted him out of their house.

Ireland put a hand on her stomach and gently rubbed it, looking Luca in the eyes as she answered him. "Because we know what you are, Luca, and we're savants as well. You don't have to hide who you are around us."

* * *

 **Author's note:**

So I know it's a little late to add a new character but it's to get you used to Luca as I plan for him to be one of the main characters in my next story (if I get around to writing it after finishing this one that is, hopefully I won't be too swamped with uni work!).

Please remember to leave a review with your thoughts on the chapter, and to let me know what you think of Luca and his story! :)

 **In the next chapter:** Flash makes a confession.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's note:  
Thank you for the reviews, I love reading them. Please let me know what you think of this chapter!

* * *

 **Monday 14** **th** **December 2020**

"Raven! Raven!"

Raven, walking alone down a corridor packed with students that all had the same idea as her in their mind of going for lunch, stopped when she heard her name being shouted behind her. She moved to stand against the wall so as not to get into people's way and stood on tiptoes to look over their heads. She caught sight of Micah's dark, handsome face in the crowd and waited a moment until he reached her.

"Hi." She couldn't stop the smile that came onto her face being around him. She never could. Despite having seen him this morning at breakfast, she still felt giddy in his presence which was new to her – she usually never let herself get so soppy over a guy. She leaned up to give him a tender kiss on the cheek. "Shall we head to the canteen, then?" She pointed towards the doorway at the end of the corridor that others were now disappearing into.

"Not right now," Micah replied, adjusting the strap of his checkered backpack. "Listen, I was talking to this girl in my Maths class-"

"You're taking A-Level Maths? I didn't know that."

Micah rolled his eyes and tilted his head. "Raven Fox, didn't your mom ever teach you that it's rude to interrupt? I thought I'd mentioned that I was doing Maths, but it doesn't matter. That's not the point. As I was saying, I was talking to this girl in my Maths class and apparently her power is that she can talk to electronic devices. Or something like that. Anyway, I told her that you'd found a phone-"

"You told her I stole Polly's phone?" When Micah raised an eyebrow at her for interrupting again, she added, "Sorry. Go on."

"Thank you. No, I didn't tell her that the phone is Polly's. I said that it's an old one of yours that you thought you'd lost, but now you can't remember the password and you really want to get on it to get back some old photos. Do you have the phone on you?" Raven nodded her head at this. She always kept the phone in her schoolbag despite having lost hope on it. "Good. She's in the classroom doing some extra work and said if we brought the phone to her now she'd unlock it for us. So come on." He grabbed her hand and turned, about to pull her away.

"Wait a second," Raven spoke up, making him face her again. "Why are you doing this? You said that you think I'm an idiot for suspecting Polly of being involved and stealing her phone in the first place."

"Well, yeah. I think Polly's a bitch but I don't think she's capable of helping someone kill themselves. But you do. This is important to you and I know you won't stop until you get proof that she's involved or not – so I'm gonna help you."

A slow grin swept across Raven's face and she reached up to twine her arms around his neck. "You're such a good boyfriend."

"I'm the _best_ boyfriend," he replied cockily. He leaned down and kissed her, chuckling when Raven leaned in to kiss him again. "No, we can't. We have to go my classroom before my new friend leaves."

Raven sighed, part of her wanting to say screw the phone so they could keep kissing, but she relented and held onto his hand as he led her to his Maths classroom. As Raven had never studied Maths at the Academy, she'd never even set foot on the Maths floor before. It was situated in an extension on the old, original building, up two flights of stairs and through a set of double doors painted red.

The corridor itself looked like any other, except for the fact that Maths equations and definitions of relevant terms were painted on the walls and each classroom door was painted a different colour. It looked bright and colourful and Raven figured this was the Academy's way of trying to make Maths seem like a more pleasant subject. It still didn't make her feel any better about it though, having only just scraped a C in her GCSE's, and it did make her wonder why the hell Micah would actually choose to do it at sixth form. What kind of person actually enjoyed Maths? Raven thought it should have been illegal.

They entered the third classroom which was empty save for Micah's new friend. Seeing her, Raven thought briefly that she should be jealous because of how pretty the girl was, but she didn't feel it at all. She felt confident in her relationship with Micah, and wasn't one of those girls who didn't want her boyfriend to be friends with other girls. It was nice not to have a catty voice in her head telling her to go crazy with jealousy.

The girl had light brown skin with dark, frizzy curls that she had pinned back from her face. She was wearing a light pink long-sleeved dress with cream tights, and black flat shoes. When they'd walked in, she had been wiping the whiteboard clean, but now put the cloth down and turned to face them.

"I was just about to leave, good timing," she spoke in an accent that, thanks to spending so much time around Killian, Raven identified as Irish.

"Sorry," Micah apologised, giving her a friendly smile. "Took me a while to find her. Raven, this is Elkie Breen. Elkie, this is my girlfriend, Raven," he introduced the two girls.

Elkie pushed her white-framed glasses further up her nose and smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. "It's nice to meet you. Micah was telling me you wanted me to unlock your old phone?"

"Yeah!" Raven said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. She let go of Micah's hand and dumped her bag on the nearest table, rifling through it until she grabbed hold of the phone. She handed it over to Elkie whilst saying, "Thank you for this. Really."

"Oh, it's no trouble. I'll remove the password entirely for you." Elkie took the phone and turned it over in her hand a few times with a slight frown on her face. She looked up at Raven, then over at Micah, before shrugging and closing her eyes. The hand holding the phone shook a little. Raven saw the phone turn itself on, showing the keys to enter the password. After just a few seconds, the screen changed to the home page of the phone.

"That was quick," Raven commented, holding her hand out to get the phone back. "That power must come in handy."

Elkie didn't give the phone back and Raven awkwardly dropped her arm back to her side. Elkie narrowed her eyes at Raven and Micah and seemed to stand up taller as if judging them. "I don't like being lied to."

"Excuse me?"

"Devices always leave an imprint of their owner," Elkie informed them in a matter-of-fact tone. "The instant I touched this phone it told me that its owner is Polly Brooks. She's in my Fashion class. Why do you have Polly's phone?" She folded her arms across her chest, hiding the phone, and raised her eyebrows to demand an explanation.

Micah stayed silent. Raven gritted her teeth together, her mind going blank on what she should say. She didn't know this girl so she definitely couldn't trust her with the truth. What excuse could she make up that would sound believable? Elkie was in the same year as Raven so she probably knew that she wasn't friends with Polly, so that option was out. She thought hard about what to say and when she finally came up with something, she knew it was lame but it was the best she had.

"It's… Complicated. I can't tell you without sounding insane, I'm sorry. Please don't tell anyone about this, especially Polly. I'll owe you a favour, anything you need."

Elkie pursed her lips, probably thinking who she should tell about this first. Surprisingly however, she went along with it. "Okay," she nodded slowly and unfolded her arms, holding the phone out to Raven. "I don't like Polly, and I don't like getting involved in other people's business so… I won't tell anyone."

Raven breathed a sigh of relief and quickly took the phone from her new best friend before she changed her mind. "Thank you," she said gratefully, giving Elkie a smile.

Raven looked down at the lit screen on the phone, unable to resist the urge to look through the phone then and there. Her instincts told her the first thing to look through was the call log, which revealed that Polly had only ever received calls on this phone, all from a blocked number. Finding that strange, she looked through the rest of the phone – texts, photos, contacts, etc. – but found nothing. She felt Micah move up behind her as he put a hand on her waist and looked down at the phone over her shoulder.

She pulled the call log back up and glanced over at Elkie who was now pulling a green faux-fur-hooded coat on and a purple satchel. "Elkie?" When the girl looked over, Raven continued. "Your power, would it help you track a blocked number and find out who it was that called this phone?"

Elkie looked thoughtful. "I've never had a need to try it before, but I don't see why not. It'll be difficult and time-consuming to do something new, but I love a challenge. Tell you what, hand the phone over to me and I'll take it home with me over the holidays to work on. When we come back to school after Christmas, I'll have a name for you."

Raven agreed, and after Elkie had left the room, she turned around to face Micah and wrapped her arms around his waist. She looked up at him, his calm expression a contrast to her worried one.

"How well do you know Elkie?" She asked him.

"Not that well," Micah shrugged. "I mean, we've sat next to each other every day this week but before then we didn't really talk. She seems nice though, and I think she's been here for a few years now. Why?"

"I just hope we can trust her."

* * *

"Will you please quit it with the pacing?" Flash groaned, causing Quinn to look over at his roommate and best friend. Flash was sat up on a white cot in the Academy's clinic, still wearing his rugby uniform, as was Quinn. Flash's left shoe and sock were on the floor, so Quinn could see how red and swollen his ankle looked already.

Flash had taken a pretty rough tackle during rugby practice so Quinn had accompanied him to the clinic. They'd been waiting for twenty minutes already now due to the clinic being short-staffed this week. Flash was now glaring over at Quinn who was making him uncomfortable by pacing back and forth.

Quinn apologised and moved over to sit down next to Flash, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling as he sighed. "You can leave if you want," Flash told him, looking rather relaxed considering he was probably in a good amount of pain. "I'm not your child, you don't have to stay with me."

Quinn stared at Flash, taken aback by his words. "Flash, come on. You're my best mate, I'm not going to leave you here alone when I know you'd stay for me. Don't be silly. I care about you, of course I'm staying."

Flash looked touched, a vulnerable look that Quinn definitely was not used to seeing on his friend. It seemed like Flash was contemplating something, or even having an inner argument with himself, before his eyes glazed over and he leaned towards Quinn. It took Quinn a moment to realize what was happening and he managed to pull away less than a second before Flash's lips were about to kiss his own.

"Flash," he gasped, staring at Flash like he were a stranger to him now. "What the hell was that? Did you just try to _kiss me_?"

Flash's body jerked, like he wanted to get up and run away but knew he was currently unable to do so. "Quinn, I'm so sorry," he stammered, talking quickly. "Please, I'm so, so, sorry. Just forget that ever happened. I don't know what came over me, I'm sorry. Please, Quinn-"

"Flash, calm down," Quinn crooned, moving close to Flash again and putting a hand on his shoulder. Flash was hysteric and Quinn hated seeing him like that, it just seemed wrong. "Look, it's alright. It was just a shock, that's all. I'm not angry at you." He paused for a moment before asking softly, "Flash, are you gay? You can tell me."

Flash didn't answer for a long time, but Quinn was patient with him. He didn't have experience in handling situations like this but he had enough common sense to know that pressuring Flash wasn't the right thing to do.

Finally, Flash answered him. "Yeah. No. I mean, I'm not sure. I think maybe I'm bi? I don't know. I'm confused. Do I have to put a label on it?"

"I guess not… God, Flash. I never would have expected this from you. I mean, what about Allison? I thought you two were dating," Quinn said, in a state of shock.

"Uh, she guessed that I might have been gay and agreed not to tell anyone. We're pretending to date because I'm not ready for people to know about me yet, and Allison was sick of Polly setting her up on dates. She'd rather focus on school than have a boyfriend. So it works out for both of us," he shrugged, setting off a vibe of exhaustion.

"So, does anyone else know?"

"No," Flash scoffed, shaking his head a lot. "My parents would freak, I'm their only son and they're always talking about me having a wife and kids. I just feel like I don't want people to know until I understand myself better. Does that make sense?"

"Absolutely," Quinn reassured him, not wanting Flash to feel awful about this. "Listen, I want you to know that this hasn't changed my opinion about you. You're still my best friend, that's not going to change, and I need you to know that I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Quinn," Flash finally smiled at him, having a lighter air to him already. "You won't tell anyone, will you? You can tell Eve, I won't ask you to keep something from your soulfinder, but please don't tell anyone else."

"No, I won't, I swear."

Before they could say anything else to each other, a nurse finally entered the room, apologizing for the wait. She looked at Flash and his swollen ankle, saying, "I'm guessing you're Miles Kennedy?"

"I am," Flash replied, giving her an arrogant, flirty grin.

 _Well,_ Quinn thought to himself. _I guess Flash's mask is back on._

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Eve goes to Quinn's house for the holidays and meets his parents; Luca wakes up to his first morning living with Xav and Ireland.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's note:

Please leave reviews with your thoughts on the chapter :)

Just a little self-promoting here... I've started a new Finding Sky story that I'm pretty excited about called Once The Storm Is Over, so feel free to check it out!

* * *

 **Saturday 19** **th** **December 2020**

Eve tugged her huge suitcase across the academy's front lawn, wishing she hadn't packed so much. She'd be at Quinn's house for three weeks though, and she had no idea if he'd planned anything for them, so she'd ended up packing almost her full wardrobe. She was kind of regretting it now; this thing weighed a ton.

The driveway in front of the academy was full of cars. Students were going home for the holidays – some left yesterday and some were leaving tomorrow, but it seemed like most had chosen today. She glanced around before finally seeing Quinn.

He was wearing a smart, probably designer, blue shirt, with black jeans and his hair neatly gelled back. He was leaning against the side of an expensive-looking black car with dark tinted windows, and lifted a hand to wave at her. She smiled and headed towards him as a tall, well-built Asian man dressed in a black suit got out of the car and started talking to Quinn.

Eve approached them cautiously, wondering if this was Quinn's adoptive dad. Quinn reached to put a hand on her lower back and kissed her on the cheek, making her blush. "Eve, this is Malcolm, he's my family's chauffeur. He's been with us since I was a child so he's pretty much part of the family by now."

"Very lovely to meet you, Miss Fox," Malcolm greeted her with a kind smile. "Let me take that for you." He took the suitcase from her and went to put it into the boot of the car as Quinn and Eve got into the back seat.

The car was lovely inside, with plush, cream leather seats. It was luxurious and that, including the fact that Quinn had a chauffeur, was entirely new and strange to Eve. She pulled the seatbelt across her chest and gave Quinn a nervous smile. She couldn't believe she'd agreed to go home with him and meet his parents. She was so scared.

As the car set off, Eve looked out of the window and watched the academy disappear out of sight. Quinn clearly saw this and reached across the middle seat between them to hold her hand. "What's the matter?"

She looked back over at him, enjoying the warmth of his palm against hers. "I went to Raven's room this morning to give her the Christmas presents I bought for my family so she could give them out for me. Mum's picking her up in a couple of hours. I told her the exact time I'd be at hers, yet her roommate told me that she was in the shower. I had to leave the presents there without even saying goodbye to Raven."

Quinn frowned, giving Eve the impression that he wasn't happy about this, but he didn't say that out loud. Instead he tried to reassure her by saying, "I'm sure Raven just lost track of time or forgot when you were coming by. I know you're sad about not saying bye, but it's only for three weeks and you can still call her during that time. It's not the end of the world."

To Eve, it felt like maybe not the end of the world, but certainly the end of an era. This was the first ever Christmas she and Raven would be spending apart and that unsettled her. Would it be like this every year from now on, with them both having their own lives and not even being together on Christmas? Eve sincerely hoped not. She _needed_ Raven; she always had.

She didn't want to talk about Raven any longer. This was supposed to be a good day and she didn't want to ruin it by sulking around about her dysfunctional relationship with her sister. She diverted the conversation in another direction by asking, "When does Flash leave? How are things between you?"

Quinn had told Eve about Flash trying to kiss him, but she hadn't told him that she'd already known about Flash being gay after she overheard him and Alison. She guessed now that the guy Flash was into was Quinn and it wasn't her place to tell him that. Things between Quinn and Flash had been awkward at first but they were finally starting to settle back into their normal friendship, although they hadn't talked about his sexuality since.

"He left about an hour ago actually," Quinn informed her. "I suppose we're better than I thought we would be. I'm fine with it all, but I think it's more just Flash being embarrassed by it. I think after Christmas we'll be back to normal, some time away from it all might be good for him."

They were in the car for almost four hours. During this time, Quinn and Eve talked for a while before listening to some music. It was a fun journey actually, and Eve was sort of disappointed it was over when they finally got to Quinn's house in London.

Large, black iron gates with an elaborate floral design blocked their way until Malcolm reached out of his car window to type a code onto the lock. The gates slowly opened and the car moved forward at a snail's pace. They made their way up a long driveway and Eve felt her eyes widen as she took in the scenery.

Tall, thick trees lined the gravel road and at one point she could see a marble waterfall beyond the trees. The driveway was at least two minutes long, but they finally reached Quinn's house. Which wasn't really a house at all, but a mansion.

There were five floors from the looks of it, and it was beautiful. The house was painted a light grey, with green ivy growing neatly up the walls. A large porch encased oak double doors, reminding her of the entrance to a castle.

Quinn and Eve got out of the car at their respective sides, meeting again at the front. Eve's heart let out a giddy beat when Quinn took her hand again and led her up the porch steps and to the front door. Eve was half expecting for a butler to welcome them, but Quinn opened the door himself and pulled her into the house. He seemed thrilled to have her here and couldn't seem to stop smiling.

Inside, she was faced with a lobby-like area. The floor was dark marble and looked lovely against the cream walls and black décor. A fireplace was against the right wall and above it hung a painted portrait of Quinn and his parents, as if they were the royal family or something. Opposite the entrance there were wide staircases on either side of the room, leading up to meet a balcony with a white railing.

The whole thing – the driveway, the outside of the house, the inside of the house – was like a slap in the face. It was a sudden reminder that no matter how ordinary Quinn acted at school, aside from the designer clothes and amazing fashion sense, he wasn't like the rest of them. He was a boy from a posh neighbourhood who had rich parents and an easy-going life. It was the total opposite to what Eve's upbringing had been like.

Quinn let her admire the lobby for a minute more before saying that he wanted to introduce her to his parents. Eve gulped and felt her hand begin to sweat in his, but Quinn didn't let go as he lead her through a door on the left side of the lobby.

They entered a massive, beautiful kitchen that was so clean it was practically shining and Eve was surprised she couldn't see her own reflection in the expensive countertops. Two people were sat in the kitchen, one a redhead woman with pink-white skin, and the other a slim, dark skinned man whose black hair was showing a few greys. The woman was sat eating a salad, whilst the man was typing away on a laptop, but they both forgot what they were doing when they saw Quinn and Eve enter the room.

"Quinn! Oh, my baby, I'm so happy to have you home," the woman cried out, moving around the counter and pulling Quinn into a hug, his hand slipping out of Eve's. The woman started planting kisses all over Quinn's face.

"Mum," Quinn groaned in embarrassment, pulling away from her. He rolled his eyes and said, "I love you too."

"Good to see you, son," the man clapped a hand onto Quinn's shoulder, beaming. Despite them not being blood related or even the same race, Eve thought that Quinn and his dad were very alike – she could see it just in the way they held themselves and the way they smiled crookedly.

The woman turned her attention to Eve, thankfully not pulling her into a hug and drowning her in kisses. "You must be Eve. Quinn's told us so much about you. I'm Brooke and this is my husband Theo – feel free to call us by our first names, no Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain." She smiled warmly at Eve, and Eve found her very welcoming and comfortable to be around already.

"Yes, and feel free to treat this as your own home during your time here," Theo added. "We want you to be happy here. It is Christmas after all."

"Thank you," Eve replied, touched. Quinn's parents were nicer to her than her own were but she surprisingly wasn't jealous, she was just happy that Quinn had good parents. "Thank you for having me."

"Mum, dad – I'm going to give Eve a tour of the house, okay? We'll probably just hang out upstairs for a bit after, so just call us down when dinner's ready?"

His parents agreed and, after again being welcomed to the house, Eve followed Quinn back out into the lobby and then up the stairs. "Your parents seem nice," she commented, glancing sideways at him.

"They are," he smiled and returned her look. "I've told you before, we're pretty close. It's been hard being away from them but we all understand it's something I needed so I could be introduced into the savant world. I love being at the academy now though, but I am glad to be home for a short while. I've missed them."

Quinn gave Eve a tour of the house as promised. The top two floors of the house were the ones he focused on the most as they belonged entirely to him. He had a library, a games room, an office, his own theatre room, his bedroom and two guest bedrooms which each had an en-suite bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. His kitchen had everything he needed, except his own cooker.

Everything was lovely, far grander than anything Eve was used to. She felt herself blushing, feeling overwhelmed by all of this. It was a lot to take in and get used to and she was trying to imagine Quinn growing up in this extravagant place. He would totally fit in here and with the people he must have associated with.

Eve didn't fit in here though.

Quinn wrapped an arm around her shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do and gently suggested that they watch a film to relax and wind down after the long journey. Eve breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Quinn knew her well enough to tell when something was too much for her.

He understood her and her needs and was patient with her, so she decided that she needed to make an effort to feel totally comfortable here. For him.

* * *

 **Sunday 13** **th** **December 2020**

When Luca woke up on his first morning at his 'new home', the pink walls were an unwelcome sight. Sitting up, he looked around his bedroom. He had a double bed, a black wardrobe and chest of drawers, and a small flatscreen TV against the wall facing the bed. It would have been a plain, neutral bedroom if it weren't for the bright pink walls.

Xavier Benedict, Luca's new foster dad, had told Luca that this used to be Thea's bedroom but Thea had now moved into Felicity's room, so Luca could have this one. There was a fourth bedroom, but it had been turned into a nursery for the new baby.

Luca couldn't understand. If they had a third baby on the way, why did they want Luca? Was it just for the money they got paid for fostering him? It didn't seem like they were very short on money, so he had no idea. He doubted they were doing it simply out of the goodness of their heart.

He got out of bed and rummaged around in his duffel bag for some clean clothes. He didn't have much choice: two pairs of jeans, four t-shirts, and some old underwear and socks. He threw on an outfit and paired it with his ratty Converse sneakers, before going into the bathroom (there was a second bathroom, but apparently it was Ireland and Xav's en-suite and not for the kids) to wash his face and brush his teeth.

He felt awkward as he went downstairs where he could hear the family in the kitchen. He was a guest in this house and knew he always would be a guest. This wasn't his home. He hadn't had a home for a very long time now.

He entered the kitchen to see the four of them sat at the kitchen table, Xav teasing the girls whilst Ireland sat chuckling at them. Ireland looked up when she spotted Luca, giving him a smile. "Come join us, Luca. Help yourself."

He didn't want to sit with them but his belly was rumbling already so he reluctantly did so. The girls were eating cereal but the adults had toast on their plates. There were extra slices of toast in the centre of the table, along with butter and jam, so Luca grabbed a slice and slathered tons of strawberry jam on it.

He saw Ireland and Xav watching him and frowned, not liking their attention. To turn the attention away from him he asked them something that he'd been wondering since he met them. "You look young. How old are you?"

"We're both 25," Ireland answered him. "We met when we were 19; we're soulfinders," she added, even though he hadn't asked.

Soulfinders. It was another casual reminder that this whole family were savants like Luca which was so weird for him – he'd met people from the savant net over the years but he had never had foster parents that were savants. He also found it strange that his foster parents were only eight years older than him.

"Why aren't either of you at work?" He asked bluntly, trying to piece information about them together. He didn't want to get to know them, but he wanted to know the basics to see if it would affect him. "Do you not work on Sundays or something?"

"I sometimes do," Xav said, leaning forward to wipe some spilt milk from the table near Felicity. "But I have today off work and I'm not on-call so I have the day to myself."

"Yeah, and I set my own work hours," Ireland told him, pushing the last two slices of toast towards him. Luca accepted them without a thanks and covered them in jam as Ireland continued. "I run a charity organisation I set up to help abused kids, and I work with the net to help counsel troubled teens, so my hours are quite flexible."

 _Troubled teens._ Luca thought that he could easily be classified as one of them, so it now made sense why the net thought this house would be a good fit for him. Ireland could keep an eye on him and maybe even get him to open up and talk about his past. Luca made a mental reminder to try and never be alone with Ireland because of that.

"Luca, I was thinking that you and I could go to the mall together today," Xav spoke up, interrupting Luca's thoughts.

" _Why?_ "

"Well, I noticed that you only had a small bag of clothes and they're not exactly in the best condition, so I thought we could get you new clothes. You can pick them out, don't worry about that – although I do have to admit I'm a pretty fashionable guy so my advice would be very beneficial to you." Ireland snorted, making Xav grin cheekily. "You'll need a phone so we can get in touch with you when we need to, a laptop for schoolwork, as well as paint and other things to make the bedroom yours."

"I'd rather go shopping on my own," he said, sounding like he was sulking. Truthfully, he was kind of touched that they were willing to get all this stuff for him, but he wasn't going to admit that to them. His past foster parents had never bothered to get anything for him other than a few shirts or something.

"Well, I'm paying so you don't really have much choice, whether you want to spend time with me or not. So it's either that, or you don't get anything," Xav shrugged, looking far too full of himself.

Luca let out a long breath, agreeing to go with Xav but making sure it was clear that he wasn't fond of the idea. He mentally reminded himself that just because they were buying him new things and letting him have the room however he wanted it, it didn't mean that this was going to be a long-term permanent home. As soon as he was 18, he'd no longer be their problem and he'd go off on his own. He didn't know where he'd go, just that he'd no longer have adults telling him what to do so he couldn't wait.

After finishing off his breakfast, he headed back upstairs to his room where he'd left his jacket because Xav had said they were leaving straight away. He leaned down to pick up his jacket from the floor and as he straightened up, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

Luca looked out of the window and realised he could see straight into a bedroom of the house next door. Someone was staring right back at him too, a boy who looked about Luca's age. The boy was sat at a desk facing the window, his ginger hair sticking up in every direction as if he'd been running his fingers through it a lot.

The boy seemed surprised to see Luca stood there, but lifted his hand in a wave, smiling at him. Luca frowned in response and turned away from the window. He didn't want to make any friends whilst he was here because then it was harder to leave when he ran away, or when the foster family decided they didn't want him anymore.

He left the bedroom without looking back and went downstairs again, dreading the day ahead and having to spend 'quality time' with Xavier Benedict.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Quinn takes Eve sightseeing; Luca officially meets the boy next door.


End file.
